SuitabookFar from the Tree
Robin Benway
- Reading
- Check in around the adoption and pregnancy material, then discuss how each teenager’s history shapes their choices. Let the reader decide whether the family relationships feel hopeful, painful or unresolved.
- Themes
- Family beyond biology: Three teenagers separated by adoption explore how to find, keep and love family, while one resists bonding and another searches for traces of herself. The book?s stance on this remains unclear.
- Adoption and care histories: Grace was adopted at birth, while Joaquin has spent seventeen years in foster care; Maya’s adopted family has long-buried problems that surface. These experiences are presented as significant parts of the teenagers’ lives, but whether the novel critiques, affirms or complicates particular care arrangements is unknown.
- Teen pregnancy and responsibility: Grace has put her own baby up for adoption before looking for her biological family. Pregnancy and adoption are important circumstances in Grace’s story, but the book’s position on her decision, responsibility or parenthood is not established.
- Worth knowing
- Expect serious family circumstances rather than a light sibling story. Adoption, teen pregnancy, foster care, estrangement, secrets and uncertainty about belonging may merit a supportive conversation.