The child’s book “When I Wished I Was Alone” by Dave Cutler deals emotions of the older adopted child, but the emotions can apply to other children as well.
The book starts with a boy who is angry with his family,
yells at them and tells them he doesn’t love them and wishes he didn’t have a
family. When he falls asleep he dreams
that he is on an island all by himself and floats away. He is able to touch the stars, get close to
the planets and enjoys his solitude.
After a while he realizes that he is lonely and wishes he
could share these things with his family, but he is alone and this makes him
sad. The birds drop little pieces of
string on his island but he is not able to use them to get home because they
are too short. As night falls in his
dream, the stars latch on to the strings and he is able to float away and
return to his home.
When the boy wakes up, he rushes to tell his family how much
he loves them.
This book can lead to good discussions with your child about
their feelings. Sometimes our kids do wish they were alone, they do wish they
didn’t have a family, and they do wish they could just leave. This can give you a safe way to bring up
these feelings without your child feeling cornered.
As the book progresses, and the boy’s feelings change and
progress, there are more opportunities for discussion and for problem
solving. How might your child express
these feelings? What makes your child
have these feelings? What helps your
child with these feelings? Does it help your child to know that other children
have these feelings? You can also discuss how the boy’s parents might have felt
if he was gone and how you would feel if your child was gone.
The illustrations are bright and interesting. The words are fairly easy to read for younger
readers and should be understandable to most children age five or older. The publisher indicates that is geared toward
children ages 2 – 8 but may appeal to older children if their chronological age
and emotional age differ.