I’m sure others have written more thoughtful analyses of the role of the orphan in children’s literature.� I am now hearing a story about one 17 or 18 year old’s experience of reading Harry Potter through his adolescence on (what else) NPR.� He said one thing that crystallizes for me a thought that’s been on my back burner for a while.� So, here it is, paraphrased: When you are an adolescent, dealing with all of those adolescent anxieties, it can be really helpful to read about someone else dealing with so much more.

See, I’ve been trying to figure out why the orphan/adoptee is so important to kid lit.� And, now that I say it, it doesn’t seem very obscure, although it is important for me to understand so that I can help Butternut understand it when he encounters it.� I think it is about many things — the feeling of being alone in the world that so many of us have at that age, the feeling that there must be someone out there who understands when it is so clear that no one in our family does.� But if it is true that it helps children who are looking for someone who is suffering more than they are, and they see that suffering in the orphan because of his or her orphan-ness, that’s a problem.

I know, I know, Harry Potter has other issues, as well, but I remember reading similar books with benign adoptive parents but unhappy children who were adopted.� (And, regardless, I can imagine those conversations with kids about Harry Potter.� Teacher: So, why is Harry Potter so unhappy?� Kids: He’s got enemies, his aunt and uncle lock him up under the stairs, he’s adopted.)�

And the point isn’t that Butternut won’t have parents who help him sort through the issues of adoption.� The issue is that if, in the public imagination, the orphan/adoptee suffers more, that’s a problem.� Which is not the same as understanding that my son will face issues that other children who are not adopted will not.

Oh, I really have to get back to work, but having just written that, I realize how much this is like being Jewish.� And yet, not.� Must get back to work, and think more later.