Affordable Comfort in Children’s Books

Amanda Kelman, a philanthropist, had a three-month-old baby who died of a rare genetic disorder. She says, “About a year after my son passed away, a very good friend gave me the book The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers. I had spent a lot of time at the hospital with my son and read him a lot of books. After he died, I did not want to read those books anymore.” (She can’t look at Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever.) “But The Heart and the Bottle, although for children,” says Kelman, “is incredible as it relates to anyone, of any age, who is grieving. It shows that it is okay to feel sad and put up barriers and literally ‘put your heart in a bottle.’ It’s [also] a reminder that it’s okay to find things that bring happiness.”

Maclean’s has a really lovely piece about adults reading children’s books to find comfort. “There are lessons and hope in kids books, unlike self-help books, where adults can find holes in the words,” says a therapist and social worker in the story. I have a copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince that my best friend gave me many years ago that I love reading when I’m feeling moody, and anything by Shel Silverstein always lightens things up. Are there any children’s books that you read now that put you in better spirits?

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