1. Literature provides pleasure to both listeners and readers. Any time you read literature, you are escaping from your problems and diving into another world.
2. Literature builds experience. When children read, they are learning about new places, gaining new experiences, and meeting new people. They are even learning about the past.
3. Literature provides a language model for those who hear it and read it. Literature exposes children to correct sentence patterns, expand their vocabulary, and learn standard story structures. 
4. Literature helps children develop thinking skills. When children take time to discuss the literature they read, they learn about cause and effect, reasoning, characters and settings, etc.
5. Literature also supports all areas of the language arts curriculum. For instance, when children listen to literature, they are developing their listening skills while discussion helps children express their thoughts, feelings, and reactions.
6. Reading literature helps children practice their comprehension skills in a meaningful ways. Writers can use literature as models for different genres of writing.
7. Literature may also help children deal with their problems. When children find out how characters in books deal with problems that they may be facing, they can apply what they learn to their own problems.

There are many benefits of literature. People young and old can grow mentally and emotionally by dipping into literary text on a daily basis. As more and more children are exposed to literature, we will begin to see a change in the world for the better as the benefits or literary engagement reach further than the individual.

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1. This international adoptee, blogger “Happy Panda” writes about the connection she has with her birth mother.

Red thread

There is a red thread between two different kind of worlds,

One world with red dragons, incense and lantarns  I cannot remember,

I guess I lost her many years ago,

What she really was like, I will never ever know.

She changed very fast after I left her twenty years ago,

She is not the same anymore,

Neither am I,

We both changed in ways you can’t imagine,

Despite the distance, I still feel compassion.

There is a red thread crossing the big oceans and small seas,

All the way to the place I am right now; here,

This world I feel, smell, hear and see everyday,

It’s the world where I love, eat, work and pray.

This world taught and showed me so many beautiful things life has to offer,

I am living my dream because of her,

She gives me hope, freedom and protection,

She gives me motivation and takes me to the right direction.

There is a red thread between two kind of different worlds,

Both worlds taught me a different lesson,

One taught me my roots and family history,

While the other taught me to enjoy everyday cause the future is a big mystery.

2. Being adopted isn’t easy, and sometimes people sugarcoat it. Karen Belanger is raw and real in her poem “Denied,” a piece about the frustrations of sealed birth certificates.

DENIED – By The Government

poem by Karen Belanger

Assembling Self

I plead though they ignore my cries.

The record’s sealed is their reply.

Time and time again I ask.

I’m told to put it in the past.

I can’t get them to try and see.

They have what belongs to me.

I beg for truth but no one hears.

It only falls upon deaf ears.

I get no matter how I try.

The same stone cold response

DENIED

3. Adoptee Keith shares a beautiful tribute to his birth mother.

To A Mother I Never Knew

© Keith

To a mother I never knew,

From a son who desperately misses you.

There were so many times I would imagine you,

But you would never appear.

And there were so many times I would cry for you,

Tear after tear.

I have even begged for you,

On both knees,

To please come save me, Mama,

Please, please, please.

And even as the years passed by,

I would never lose hope,

Because it was hope

That kept this little boy afloat.

I would daydream about the moment

When I would finally meet you,

And how I would cry and be speechless

Just to finally see you.

With my own two eyes,

Exactly how I had dreamed,

Angelic and beautiful

And as loving as you seemed.

But I’m all grown up now

With a son of my own,

And I try to give to him

What I’ve always wanted in a home.

I teach my son,

From the lessons that I’ve learned.

I teach him that love can’t be bought,

It can only be earned.

I’ve learned that sometimes love

Is so much harder to show than to say.

That’s how I know you truly loved me, Mama,

Because you’re not here with me today.

I can only imagine

The selfless love that it took

To say goodbye to your child

And take one last look.

To let him go,

In hopes that he can live a better life.

The pain must’ve felt

Like a dull serrated knife.

I miss you every day, Mama,

And I hope to see you soon.

But if not,

Then I’ll see you in my dreams tomorrow afternoon.

The post 3 Poems By Adoptees That You Should Read appeared first on Adoption Poetry | For Adoptees, Adoptive Parents, Birth Mothers.