Schools

Lilburn Author Writes Children's Book on Adoption

Tanya Valentine says the idea for the book "whooshed through" her after adopting her son, Ben.

 

That the child up for adoption was of a different race didn't matter one bit to Tanya Valentine and her husband, Tony Grillo.

Valentine and Grillo, both white, had been heartbroken after a foster child left their home. They decided to adopt an older child, but were also thrilled when they were able to add an African-American newborn to their family.

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Turns out it mattered, though, to people around them where they lived in central Florida. Remarks from both races jarred the couple on a regular basis.

And so the family moved to Lilburn, where Grillo had grown up, and they were even able to buy the house where he was raised. Ben, the adopted son, and Charlie, their 9-year-old biological son, now sleep in the room their dad had slept in as a child.

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Valentine remembers going out to eat at a Thai restaurant soon after the move. At every single table, she says, there was a mixture of black and white.

"I knew Lilburn was the place for us," she said.

Valentine had written a series of children's books before Ben came into her life, and after the adoption, an idea for another one, All Bears Need Love, "whooshed through me," she said. It's the story of a polar bear who, against the advice of the other animals in the zoo, adopts a brown bear.

The book hasn't yet been published, but Valentine has submitted it to the MeeGenius! Author Challenge. If she wins, she'll have a chance to publish the book, and Knight Elementary - which Charlie attends - will get an e-library of books from MeeGenius, which claims to be the "world's largest enhanced digital library" for children. Click here to read the book  - and cast your vote in the contest.

Valentine says time has proved her right in her initial assessment of Lilburn.

"Everything has been just awesome since we moved to Lilburn," she says. "Lilburn has been so amazing."


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