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Åsa Gilland Books

A wonderful book explaining the thought and care that goes into choosing a child’s name. In this story a little girl recalls the love that went into her parents giving her a special name. Sitara explains how she feels when people cannot pronounce her name correctly.

I think many of us, including me, can relate to Sitara’s frustrations when people could not pronounce our name or dismiss our feelings. This story suggests ways people can try and get to know someone’s name. The beautiful and colourful illustrations by Asa Gilland elevate this story and will keep the readers captivated. A useful and meaningful addition to any bookshelf or collection.

A sensitively-told story that addresses the tricky subject of divorce with care and understanding, from Clare Helen Welsh and Åsa Gilland.

Laughing and playing together as a family on the beach, it seems the happy, warm days of summer will never end. Then, everything changes. Mummy and Daddy say they can’t live together anymore, and sad, worried feelings begin to emerge – It’s not fair! Was it all my fault? But, as time passes and the seasons change, it becomes clearer that hard times won’t always be quite so hard . . .

A lyrical book about the difficult emotions a child can feel when their parents break up, with an optimistic message of hope and resilience. Gorgeous illustrations and an emotive colour palette perfectly capture the nuances of emotion felt by both the child and parents during a separation. Much like Pat Thomas’s My Family’s Changing, Claire Masurel’s Two Homes and Patrice Karst’s The Invisible String, Everything Changes offers a way to help children understand their feelings during big changes in their family unit.

The story begins perfectly. A loving family out for a day in the woods. Two close siblings decide to build a shelter from sticks they collect. Then the older sister is a bit tired. The wind blows and the den collapses. They rebuild their perfect shelter. As the weather becomes more inclement, the sister grows sicker and the shelter is not important any longer. As the days wear on, the older sister is in hospital, the younger child just wants their sister to be well again. On a visit to the hospital, as the sister grows stronger, will they find the perfect way to discover their smiles again?

This was a moving story dealing with the serious illness of a sibling. While the little girl felt a whole array of feelings that could be associated with this experience, the shelter became a symbol that needed repairing for everything to be OK while the weather tried to tear it down. The combination of the weather, the shelter and the little girl’s feelings merge brilliantly in this book, all reflecting the turbulent time that the characters were experiencing.

The bright, colourful pictures perfectly illustrated the happy times of den building and the love and hope felt between the characters, while the images of the darker weather showed the fear and sadness of the family situation. I thought it was great that the characters were not named; they could reflect any child going through this experience.

A beautiful story inviting interest and empathy towards those living through the serious illness of a loved one.

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