Book 2

Book Review #2: “The Red Thread”

The Red Thread, by Grace Lin is an adoption fairy tale. The story starts with a young girl asking her parents to read to her the story “The Red Thread” and her parents are hesitant because they say “Oh, you’ve heard it a hundred times.” The tale starts with a king and a queen who ruled over a kingdom; however, felt as though something was missing from their lives. The King and Queen both became ill with a pain in their hearts that grew worse with each passing day. No one in the kingdom could figure out what was ailing the couple until one day a peddler came and said to them that they had a red thread being pulled from their hearts. Once their eyes were opened to seeing this string they realized that it was in fact being pulled straight from their hearts and nothing could cut through this thread. So the King and Queen set off on a difficult journey to find the other end of the red thread. The string led them to a small village where they found the thread attached to a small bundle inside an old house. Once they looked inside the basket they found a baby pulling on two red strings that were tied to his ankles. This baby belonged to them and they took him back to the kingdom where he became the Prince and their new family lived happily ever after with no more pain in their hearts. The last page of the book is the young girl sitting on her parents’ lap, all with crowns on their heads, reading the adoption fairy tale. Even though, this book is written by an “outsider” Grace Lin, who states that she “was inspired to write The Red Thread after experiencing many warm and wonderful interactions with families with children who are adopted” it is extraordinary because it truly captures the emotion that comes from completing your family through adoption.