Emily Out of Focus

by Miriam Spitzer Franklin

From the author of Extraordinary and Call Me Sunflower, Emily Out of Focus is a warm and winning exploration of the complexity of family, friendship, and identity that readers will love.

Twelve-year-old Emily is flying with her parents to China to adopt and bring home a new baby sister. She’s excited but nervous to travel across the world and very aware that this trip will change her entire life. And the cracks are already starting to show the moment they reach the hotel—her parents are all about the new baby and have no interest in exploring.

In the adoption trip group, Emily meets Katherine, a Chinese-American girl whose family has returned to China to adopt a second child. The girls eventually become friends and Katherine reveals a secret: she’s determined to find her birth mother, and she wants Emily’s help.

New country, new family, new responsibilities—it’s all a lot to handle, and Emily has never felt more alone.

• ISBN10: 1510738541
• ISBN13: 9781510738546
• Publish Date: 7 May 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Imprint: Sky Pony Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 240
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

After twelve years as a family of three, Emily's family was preparing to become a family of four.

Emily was a 12-year-old with aspirations of winning a photo journalism competition and lots of worries about her trip to China to meet her new sister. Would she survive her first plane trip? Would she like the food? Would she like her sister? Would her sister like her? I had no need to worry though, because Emily and her family were able to work through all these issues and more during their journey.

Foreign adoption has become quite common in the US, and I enjoyed reading about the process. I appreciated Franklin sharing her personal experiences, and the first hand knowledge really showed, as she included many details, that were previously unknown to me. She shared the positives and some of the negatives, but what I really loved, was the different points of view she gave us.

The story was told by Emily, and therefore, the bulk of the experience was told from the adoptive family's perspective. Franklin did a wonderful job helping us navigate Emily's emotions. They came across as very real and reasonable, and I loved the way she and her family worked through all her feelings.

But we didn't only get the perspective of the new parents and the new sister, we also got to see this whole trip through the eyes of someone, who had previously been one of those babies - Katherine. Katherine was not as easy to like as Emily, but once I started learning more about her emotions regarding being back in China and her adoption, my heart ached a little for her, and I wanted to give her a great big hug.

Overall: A sweet, touching, and realistic look at foreign adoption, which brought us to China, and helped us see it through the eyes of a new, pre-teen sister, as well as an adoptee.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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