Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Best-selling author Mitch Albom returns to nonfiction for thefirst time in more than a decade in this poignant memoir that celebrates Chika,a young Haitian orphan whose short life would forever change his heart. Performed byMitch Albom with Chika’s voice featured throughout.

Chika Jeune was born three daysbefore the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent herinfancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died givingbirth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanagethat Albom operates in Port Au Prince. 

With no children of their own, the40-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have becomefamily to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression.Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kidsand teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something adoctor there says “no one in Haiti can help you with.” 

Mitch and Janine bring Chika toDetroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to herhomeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and theirlives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure.As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for achild, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows ittakes, can never be lost. 

Told in hindsight, and throughilluminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his mostpoignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is acelebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond theyformed - a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family,regardless of how it is made.