While You Were Sleeping

Overview

While You Were Sleeping is a 2004 picture book by Stephanie Burks, illustrated by Kelli Bienvenu. Public records describe a story about two women learning that a birthmother has chosen them to adopt a newborn baby boy, then traveling to meet him and bring him home. The local catalog records the Mechanics copy as signed and inscribed by Burks, adding copy-level value to a small-press family book. The item belongs near other adoption-origin stories in the collection, but its focus is narrower: the repeated phrase from the title frames the child's first hours of life through the anticipation, tenderness, and arrival of his two mothers.^{[1][2][3][6][5]}

Adoption Origin Story

The book turns a newborn adoption into a bedtime-like origin story. Public summaries describe two women receiving news that a birthmother has chosen them, then moving through anticipation, travel, first meeting, lullabies, and homecoming. That structure is intimate and compressed. It avoids explaining adoption as policy or law; instead, it tells the child what happened while he was sleeping. For the collection, the important point is form: family origin is presented as a repeating phrase of care.^[3][6][1]

Two-Mother Family Frame

The two mothers are not side characters or examples in a survey of families. They are the adopting parents whose joy, waiting, and movement organize the story. Bibliographic and educational sources classify the book with lesbian mothers, gay parents, adoption, and juvenile fiction. That placement gives the object a clear collection role: it belongs to the early-2000s shelf of picture books where same-sex-parent families were represented through daily care, adoption, and domestic arrival rather than through controversy.^[5][6][2][7]

Signed Copy Value

The local catalog records this copy as signed and inscribed by Stephanie Burks. That does not change the plot, but it changes the object's place in the collection. Signed small-press books can document contact between creator, reader, collector, and community even when public reception evidence is limited. Here, the inscription sits beside a book already concerned with adoption, chosen family, and parental arrival. The copy therefore has both bibliographic and affective value.^[1][3][2]

Visual And Racial Reading

The local catalog notes that the two women appear white while the adopted baby appears Black. The verified cover also shows two women looking toward a baby in a hospital setting. Because a full racial reading depends on the interior illustrations, the page keeps the claim modest. The supported point is that the item belongs near books about same-sex-parent adoption and mixed-race family formation. Its visual evidence may become richer when the physical copy is photographed and described.^[1][2][3][8]

Timeline

1. 2004Publication recordOpen Library records a 2004 paperback edition with Stephanie Burks as author and Kelli Bienvenu as illustrator.^[2]
2. 2004Bookseller synopsisAbeBooks preserves a synopsis describing the two mothers, the birthmother's choice, the newborn son, and the homecoming.^[3]
3. 2010Family bibliographyA children's-books bibliography compiled for LGBT-parent family resources lists the title among picture books.^[7]
4. 2022Scholarship contextLater picture-book scholarship places the title among adoption and lesbian-parent representation records.^[8]

Adoption And Two-Mother Stories

The item sits near other books that present family origin, adoption, and two-parent same-sex households for children.

Citation

While You Were Sleeping. Stephanie Burks; illustrated by Kelli Bienvenu. Little Man Publishing; some public bibliography records cite Trafford, 2004. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-056.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for While You Were Sleeping · catalog
2. Open Library ISBN record for While You Were Sleeping · library
3. AbeBooks record for While You Were Sleeping · bookseller
4. Goodreads author record for Stephanie Burks · reader_catalog
5. Gay Canada bibliography entry · bibliography
6. Norfolk bibliography on lesbian, gay, and bisexual children's books · bibliography
7. Children's books with LGBT parents bibliography · bibliography
8. The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books, archive excerpt · scholarship
9. Leslea Newman page for Felicia's Favorite Story · creator
10. Family Equality Book Nook early elementary list · education
11. Existing v3 record for Felicia's Favorite Story · internal
12. Existing v3 record for How My Family Came to Be: Daddy, Papa, and Me · internal
13. Existing v3 record for Flying Free · internal
14. Local collection context for Celebrating Families · internal