Media Monday: Porcupette Finds a Family

Porcupette Finds a Family by Vanita Oelschlager

We give it 3.5 out of 5 stars

Here is a summary from Picture Book Depot:

"In Porcupette Finds a Family, Oeschlager tackles the tragedy of suddenly losing a parent and going straightway into a foster home. The story is told by little Porcupette (the proper name for a baby porcupine), who gives a first-person account of his early life with his loving porcupine mother. His mother dotes on him and teaches him many things, but one day she leaves their home of rocks to find food, and something goes terribly wrong. Poor Porcupette waits and waits but his mother never returns, so he wanders out into the snow and cold to search for her. He never discovers what happened to her, but he does stumble upon a mother bear sleeping peacefully beside her two bear cubs.

Scared, hungry and tired beyond words, Porcupette walks right into their cave, snuggles next to the cubs for warmth, and begins to drink milk from Mother Bear. To his surprise, Mother Bear and the babies accept him, and suddenly, Porcupette has a new family.

But like any child who has been uprooted from what he knows and thrust into a new environment, Porcupette has a new fear: How long will this new family last? Things seem fine on the surface, but what if Mother Bear suddenly remembers he’s not really her child? And what if the entire family suddenly disappears on him, like his own mother did?"

Our thoughts: This book did a great job of describing the feelings of a foster care situation or an adoption with an older child. It talks about how the porcupine sticks out his quills when they are afraid, as is common in these situations. They were very vivid and sad descriptions of how these children feel and react to things. In the end, the Mother Bear comes to find Porcupette and he realizes that she does love him. We are hoping for infant adoption, but this book was good to read so that we could understand more of the feelings/reactions of kids in that situation.