A Brand New Star!

December 2022 A Brand New Star

A Brand New Star is a gentle, illustrated, short rhyming story, which touches on the emotions associated with grief and contains a message that there is still light and happiness all around us, you just need to know where to look.

-About the book, from the author

I originally wrote this story as a poem, for my youngest daughter after our family had suffered the loss of my mother, my father figure and one of my closest friends in a very short space of time. All of which were extremely close to my children as their grandparents and ‘uncle’.

It’s always difficult to put in to words the feelings associated with grief, especially to a very young child trying to understand something so huge, and then during that period of grief and understanding, it happening again, and then again.

I wrote this book just for her and it’s something that gave her some feeling of hope in those first weeks and beyond. The thought that they are still with us in some way, as a sign, a gust of wind, a star in the sky…

It also brought me a huge amount of comfort to write. We still spend a lot of time counting stars. ✨

The simple illustrations are based on the journey and emotion of loss, being kind to yourself, along with the idea that it’s ok to let go, because their love will still stay.

I decided to publish the book so that we would have something in their memory, out there in the world, and in turn this was extremely therapeutic to me; to do something in their names, after all they did for me I truly hope it brings comfort to others.