Hi all,
This post is a bit different to my usual but I read this book to my daughter the other day and fell in love with it.
I wanted to share this beautiful story with you, if you are a parent you may want this book as it helps to explain the upsetting subject of loss in a magical and reassuring way.
Julia Donaldson tells this poignant story while Rebecca Cobb's soft and child like illustrations bring it to life with subtlety and care.
We meet a little girl and her 'nice mother' as they make paper dolls together. The girl and the dolls have adventures through the house with other toys. We enjoy following them throughout the day as they narrowly escape the jaws of a dinosaur, hop onto a bus, explore the farmyard, run away from a tiger, chat to a ladybird... and then along comes a boy who snips them into tiny little pieces and he says that they are, "gone forever".
Just as you are wondering why this kind of behaviour is being shown in a children's book, the story gets to it's real focus. The paper dolls that we believed lost have actually gone to live on forever in the little girl's memory.
Here the dolls find they are in good company, they join lots of other lovely things including 'a kind granny' and fireworks. Not only that but they are joined by 'more and more lovely things each day, and each year'.
I was so moved by this change in the story, I thought it was such a lovely way to explain to a young child (my daughter is nearly 4) that the people we lose are never really gone, we can keep them alive in our hearts and minds. We are lucky that she has all of her grandparents in her life and we love that we see them all regularly, but we will not always be so lucky.
The sad inevitability is that we will one day have to deal with loss and grief. It is something we struggle with even as adults and it is so difficult to describe to a child - how can you explain why a loved one has been snatched away so cruelly? How can they understand the concept of never seeing that person any more?
The story continues along the beautiful path it has started, we see the girl grow into a mother herself who makes paper dolls with her own daughter. And so we see this story come full circle whilst also moving forward, in the same strange way that life moves forward whilst simultaneously being cyclical.
I have found this book an excellent teaching tool, it has given us a great starting point for talking about death, loss and coping with grief.
As I have chosen not to encourage my daughter into a particular faith (she can decide for herself when she is older) I have struggled to put this subject into words but Julia Donaldson has done so superbly.
I am so glad we found this book and I encourage you to seek it out.
Thanks for reading,
Rach xx
Check out my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RachelReviewsAndMuse
Follow me on twitter? Come say 'hi!' to @rachmarshall
Or check out my pictures on Instagram :-) AllNaturalAspirations
This post is a bit different to my usual but I read this book to my daughter the other day and fell in love with it.
I wanted to share this beautiful story with you, if you are a parent you may want this book as it helps to explain the upsetting subject of loss in a magical and reassuring way.
Julia Donaldson tells this poignant story while Rebecca Cobb's soft and child like illustrations bring it to life with subtlety and care.
We meet a little girl and her 'nice mother' as they make paper dolls together. The girl and the dolls have adventures through the house with other toys. We enjoy following them throughout the day as they narrowly escape the jaws of a dinosaur, hop onto a bus, explore the farmyard, run away from a tiger, chat to a ladybird... and then along comes a boy who snips them into tiny little pieces and he says that they are, "gone forever".
Just as you are wondering why this kind of behaviour is being shown in a children's book, the story gets to it's real focus. The paper dolls that we believed lost have actually gone to live on forever in the little girl's memory.
Here the dolls find they are in good company, they join lots of other lovely things including 'a kind granny' and fireworks. Not only that but they are joined by 'more and more lovely things each day, and each year'.
I was so moved by this change in the story, I thought it was such a lovely way to explain to a young child (my daughter is nearly 4) that the people we lose are never really gone, we can keep them alive in our hearts and minds. We are lucky that she has all of her grandparents in her life and we love that we see them all regularly, but we will not always be so lucky.
The sad inevitability is that we will one day have to deal with loss and grief. It is something we struggle with even as adults and it is so difficult to describe to a child - how can you explain why a loved one has been snatched away so cruelly? How can they understand the concept of never seeing that person any more?
The story continues along the beautiful path it has started, we see the girl grow into a mother herself who makes paper dolls with her own daughter. And so we see this story come full circle whilst also moving forward, in the same strange way that life moves forward whilst simultaneously being cyclical.
I have found this book an excellent teaching tool, it has given us a great starting point for talking about death, loss and coping with grief.
As I have chosen not to encourage my daughter into a particular faith (she can decide for herself when she is older) I have struggled to put this subject into words but Julia Donaldson has done so superbly.
I am so glad we found this book and I encourage you to seek it out.
Thanks for reading,
Rach xx
Check out my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RachelReviewsAndMuse
Follow me on twitter? Come say 'hi!' to @rachmarshall
Or check out my pictures on Instagram :-) AllNaturalAspirations
No comments:
Post a Comment