Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family
Book Description»
"Mitch Albom has once more captivated readers with his touching memoir about love and grief. Chika is impossible to resist. This book is a page turner destined to stand the test of time" Mary Karr, known for her novels The Liars' Club and The Art of Memoir
In LEADING UP TO TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, Mitch Albom shares his most intimate tale to date It is a book of inspiration and hope that delves into the meaning of family and the encounter that changed his life: meeting Chika Jeune, a little orphan from Haiti.
Chika Jeune started life only three days earlier before 2010 earthquake that ravaged Haiti. After the death of her mother while giving birth she and her little brother spent their formative years fastened in the crushing grip of abject poverty. Chika was then taken in by The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage, a place Albom operates in Port Au Prince.
For four years, at least forty children have lived, played, and gone to school at the orphanage. As childless, these have become like family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika will make a quick impression in this crowded household. Brave and self-assured even as a three-year-old, she will delight the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, "No one in Haiti can help you with."
Mitch and Janine take Chika home to Detroit; they hope American medical care will make her healthy enough to return to the bush in a relatively short period. Instead, she stays with them permanently and they take off on a two-year journey around the world in search of a cure. As Chika's irrepressible hopefulness and humor teach Mitch about the pleasures of parenting a child, he learns that a relationship formed with love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.
Brought to us with hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed—a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.
About The Author»
A widely-read fiction and non-fiction author, Mitch Albom has sold more than 41 million copies worldwide in over 47 languages. These include Tuesdays with Morrie, described as the best-selling memoir of all time; eight New York Times bestsellers, among them etc., award-winning TV films, screenplays and musical performances among others. He is also a member of both the National Sports Media Association and Michigan Sports halls of fame due to his professional association with the Detroit Free Press, he won the 2010 Red Smith Award for longevity of work. In addition to this, he has founded SAY Detroit which comprises of nine different charitable programs in his hometown; a non-profit dessert shop and a food line whose proceeds go towards assisting the neediest in the city. Since 2010, he has managed Have Faith Haiti orphanage in Port-au-Prince that he visits every month. In Michigan, he shares a home with wife Janine.
Popular Highlights»
What we carry defines who we are. And the effort we make is our legacy.
Children wonder at the world. Parents wonder at their children’s wonder. In so doing, we are all together young.
It takes a special strength to take care of a child, Chika, and a whole different strength to admit you cannot.
Overall Book Review»
An Unforgettable Story of Love, Loss, and Family
Finding Chika by Mitch Albom is one of the most touching memoirs I have ever read: so beautiful, profound, and deeply personal about meaning in family, love, and loss. Albom brings us into his world, telling the heartwarming yet heartbreaking story of Chika Jeune, a young Haitian girl who transforms his and his wife Janine's lives forever.
Chika was born hardly a fortnight before the earthquake in 2010 that ravaged Haiti. A young orphan, she had lost both her parents at an early age and finally had come to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage where Albom volunteers for the orphans. Chika immediately won the hearts of all with her spirited, brave personality. It became a very tragic period for this spirited little girl when doctors diagnosed that Chika was suffering from a very rare brain tumor when she was five years old. To that end, Albom and his wife took Chika to the States and traveled the world with her for a couple of years in search of a cure.
In essence, Finding Chika is about this deep, unwavering bond between the Alboms and Chika, which somehow evolved into more than just guardianship-it's true parenthood. As they wander around the world to look for a cure for her, Chika teaches them lessons about love, strength, and resilience, even if it was the unimaginable. One of the most powerful lessons that I obtained from the book is when it said, "What we carry defines who we are.". The effort we make is our legacy." This sentiment reverberated throughout the book as Albom reflected on the sacrificialness of parenthood and the legacy Chika left behind.
Albom also candidly writes about the pain and hardships seen in seeing a child suffer. He touches on his regrets—regretting how he had focused too much on his career and missed the window to build a family earlier. The more significant joys and challenges of parenthood they both undergo is, however. Through Chika, both of them: his honeyed words to Chika more reflective of the emotional depth the bond they shared and of the eternal impact she left behind in their lives; "You never have to worry about us forgetting you".
The book is written so beautifully, and the conversation that Albom had with Chika throughout the novel is such a fresh, touching narrative device. Such dialects bring out her infectious personality and highlight their special relationship. Popular highlights like "Children wonder at the world. Parents wonder at their children's wonder" encapsulate the way Albom experienced fatherhood through Chika's eyes.
Publishers Weekly refers to the book as "painfully sad and beautiful," showing that Albom really tackles the pain of losing someone, but balances it out with moments of joy, hope, and laughter, all due to Chika's resilient spirit. The book will uncover Chika's personality in full gleam and in her darkest moments with illness to remind readers of the power of love and the beauty in even the smallest things.
In Finding Chika, Mitch Albom once again proves his incredible ability to tell a story that is, at the same time, very personal but at the same time really very universally relatable. Actually, this memoir is not about only loss, as there is much more importance given to the creation of an extraordinary family. In the words of Kirkus Reviews, "Families are like pieces of art, they can be made from many materials." This book reminds us that family isn't always about biology—it's sometimes just about the love, effort, and care you give and receive.
Finding Chika is a heart-wrenching and emotional read for anyone who will ever need it: one that can really delve into the topics of love and its strength needed to care for a child, as well as how she could have a lasting impact on those that loved her. This memoir will make you feel, motivate you, and stay in your mind long after the last page has been turned.
Rating According to Me_⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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