Three young Chinese girls who are adopted from the same orphanage are sent to summer camp together. One is struggling to come to terms with her heritage. Six girls share a cabin and hope to win the camp competition. But they must first learn to get along and work together.

This book gave this feeling in my heart. It's showed the struggle and Liam adoptive kids Carry and how they carry on in life with their families and their origin.
This book taught me to be grateful for my family and appreciate my origins.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.


I liked this cute story of Julia and her “adoption sisters” – two girls (Becca and Avery) adopted at the same time as her from the same Chinese orphanage. The three go off to summer camp together, and find themselves in a motley crew of a cabin. They can’t get any of the competitions right, and trouble ensues. Each girl in the cabin struggles in her own way, and they end up learning so much from each other. Eventually Julia overcomes her refusal to accept anything about her Chinese heritage and learns to strike a balance in accepting all aspects of her identity.

So many moments of this MG book felt very “real” to me. I appreciated the light religious undertones of the camp, since my own childhood included being a non-churchgoing child at a Christian camp. I also appreciated the truth of the 12-yr-old girls crushing on the much older male counselor! So cute! I adored the friends that Julia made, and the various descriptions of the competitions.

This is a book that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to a middle-schooler, as I think they would all benefit from this charming novel about adoption and self-acceptance.

Just Like Me chronicles the story of Julia, a girl who is lost in a sea of labels. This story doesn't shy away from the fact that adolescents deal with a lot of this in their lives, even from adults. If Julia was adopted from China, that makes her Chinese. Or at least it does in the eyes of everyone around her. Nevermind that she doesn't feel like that is her heritage, and wants to find her own place in the world. Nancy J. Cavanaugh takes us on a journey of self-discovery, and it's sweet.

I admit, Julia wasn't my favorite character at first. She's obstinate as an adolescent can be, especially when it comes to anything to do with her cultural background. However, as the story went on, I slowly started to see where Julia was coming from. To live in a world that tells you over and over again that you should identify as Chinese, when you were raised as anything but that, is definitely tough. This book deals a lot with the expectations that others push on us, and how they can sometimes feel stifling.

Truth be told, there's a lot of great lessons in this book. It pulls in characters who are adopted, fostered, and even children whose parents have split. I forsee a lot of young readers really connecting with this story. If it seems a bit juvenile in narrative sometimes, it's only because Nancy J. Cavanaugh really channels the adolescent age. A time of growth, and a time of turmoil,

This is a sweet read, that goes by quickly! I see this as a fabulous mother/daughter read too, since there's so much to talk about.

I got this book as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Just Like Me was a wonderful book about self-discovery for an adopted girl. Not only did she embrace her heritage, which she had resisted, but she understood by the end of the story that everyone has things in life that they have to deal with. The story was a bit difficult to follow, as I was reading an unformatted ARC. Some of the text was in the wrong place and it made the switch between the narrative and the journal entries meld together. I enjoyed the story, especially the relationships between the girls in White Oak. Even though I am not adopted, I felt I could understand Julia's rejection of her Chinese heritage because she wanted to be like everyone else (as she perceived them to be). I've seen many instances where 2nd generation immigrant children reject their heritage so they can be "American." I hope that stories such as this will encourage more people to embrace multiple cultures and to be proud of all they identify with - in Julia's case, Chinese, Italian, and Irish. I felt for her, understanding how the adults would naturally feel the girls had a special connection since they all went on this journey to China to adopt the girls together, and how the adults would form a close bond. Julia, however, seemed to be more of a third wheel - not only limited by her refusal to embrace anything Chinese, but also because Avery and Becca lived closer together and obviously spent more time together. I think this will be a wonderful story to recommend to any student struggling with adoption or identity issues.

Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

Books by Nancy Cavanaugh are a hot commodity in the Painter house. My daughter loves them. I can not tell you how many times she has read Always Abigail. This being the case I was excited to see that there was a new book coming from Cavanaugh this year. Just Like Me is a wonderful story about friendship, cultural identity, adoption, and camp.

Julia is spending a week at camp with her "Chinese sisters" Avery and Becca, the two girls who were adopted from the same orphanage as Julia at the same time. Julia is not looking forward to this. She's looking forward even less to journaling about the experience for the woman who organized all three of their adoptions can write about them. Julia is not interested in her Chinese heritage. Avery and Becca eat Cheetos with chopsticks. Julia likes crafts. Avery and Becca are athletic and competitive. Julia feels pressured. Why should she be friends with these girls just because they were born in the same place? And why should she be interested in Chinese things simply because that's where she was born? Can't she be Irish and Italian too like her adopted parents?

Julia is so tangled up about how she feels about herself and her identity. On one level Julia's struggle is one any middle schooler can relate too. Identity is a tough issue for middle schoolers to wrestle with. However, Julia's struggle is her own. Adopted from another country she doesn't remember, she has to figure out what that will mean in her life. She is also having feelings and thoughts about her birth mother and why she gave her up that lead her construct fantasies in her head she knows aren't true. All of this comes to a climax while she is at camp. Avery and Becca are good friends because they live closer to each other and Julia feels like a third wheel. The three "Chinese sisters" share a cabin with three other girls. Two of those girls are old camp rivals of Avery and Becca. The third is a foster child who is attending the camp for the first time. All six girls are very different and their relationship dynamic is realistic.

The girls do not get along. Not even a little bit. This leads to one disaster after another that gets them in trouble and leads to them losing points in the camp competition. They split themselves into pairs when they have free time. All six of them together are a disaster. But as they have to navigate a couple of punishment tasks together, they gain an appreciation for each other and start to form the loose bonds of friendship. There are some scenes that are exactly what you would imagine finding in a book that takes place at summer camp and it sets exactly the right feel for the book.

It is wonderful to have a book that deals with the complicated feelings of adopted kids-particularly those who are adopted internationally. I can't think of another book that even tries. Another thing I really appreciated about the book was its mentions of religion. The girls are at a Christian camp. They have Bible study and scripture is quoted a couple of times. This is in no way a book about becoming a Christian or even being one. It is a part of these girls' lives though and so it is included. I love that this was included. So many books completely skip over the part religion plays in so many young people's lives. It was nice to have it there as just as a thing that they do.

Kids who like contemporary friendship stories will enjoy this. It's camp setting is an added bonus I think. It's nice to have a story of this sort that isn't a school story too.

I read an ARC made available by the publisher, Sourcebooks, via Edelweiss. Just Like Me is on sale April 5.

Review originally published 6 March 2017 at Falling Letters.

Just Like Me = camp narrative + adoption narrative. I thought the camp atmosphere was portrayed well, capturing the spirit of competitiveness that can overtake kids. I liked that the girls couldn’t always get along (although their bickering may grow old quickly for some readers). They had to learn to work together and empathize a little as they learnt about each other’s backgrounds. This applies not only to Julia, Avery, and Becca, but to the other three girls in their cabin as well.

Own voices? – Not exactly… Cavanaugh is definitely not an American girl adopted from China. The author photo in the book showing Cavanaugh (a White woman) with her daughter might lead one to assume that Cavanaugh adopted her daughter from China. However, the description does not clarify this, nor have I found explicit evidence online. In a time when we are recognizing more and more the value of own voices narratives, I am curious about the experiences (or lack thereof) which an author draws from, especially when writing contemporary fiction. I find it a tad frustrating not to be able to do that.

Just Like Me is a perfect summer read for girls that is about growing up and trying to figure out who they are in this crazy world we live in. For my full review, click here: https://msethnablog.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/just-like-me-by-nancy-j-cavanaugh/

DNF. I understood the reason why this was written, but it read too much message, too little other reason to read.

ARC provided by publisher.

Just because they were all adopted from the same orphanage in China at the same time doesn't mean that Julia has to have anything in common with Avery and Becca. She is glad that they live far enough away that they don't have to see each other all of the time. But now they have to spend a week together at sleepaway camp (the Christian camp that Becca & Avery have gone to for the past few years) for a newspaper story about adoption. When the three of them are thrown into a cabin with some girls that Becca & Avery have butted heads with in the past, the summer starts off on the wrong foot. But the camp competition is by cabin this year -- can the girls put aside their differences to work together towards winning? As Julia makes her way through the week, she realizes truths not only about herself, but about Avery & Becca as well. Based on the author's adopted daughter's experiences, this will appeal to students in grades 4 & up who are on a similar journey of self-discovery.

ARC provided by the publisher