Picture: Templar Books UK
A Shelter for Sadness
from Anne Both
with Illustrations from David Litchfield
40 Pages
1st. published 01. September 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68263-339-7
Templar Books UK.
16,99€
A story,
in which a place, a home, is created for sadness.
How to deal with grief and sadness
for children + 4 years
Those who are sad need comfort, but often those affected are not open to conversations. It's too much for them to talk about. This goes to adults as well as children and that's why it's good that there are books like this. Books that show (aus)ways without being intrusive. Books that show about their history and illustrations that it is completely normal to be sad, but at the same time they can also trigger thoughts or give hope.
Inspired by the Dutch Jewish intellectual Etty Hillesum*, who died on 30 November 1943 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Anne Booth tells the sensitive, poignant story of a little boy who builds a place, a kind of tent/house for his sadness, in which she can/may be at home completely undisturbed, and only she decides if and when she steps outside the door. Through the absolutely fantastic and incredibly sensitive, emotional, expressive illustrations by David Litchfield, the "sadness" gets a face. Even more she is a recognizable (tangible) figure that reminds a little of a tangy ball of wool on legs, with a visible heart.
When we enter the book, we are greeted by a very warm cheerful mood reminiscent of a forest festival. Small, bright, colorful fairy lights, pennant garlands, flowers and grasses and if you look very closely, there are also small pieces of paper and pictures hanging there.
Cozy, secure, warm, inviting, cheerful, that's what we associate with this impression, which distracts a little from the somewhat quieter cover image that led us into the book, before the next impressions tie back to the cover image. One or the other may have the impression that it could be a crushing or at least very depressing story, but that is not the case. It is the story of a boy who learns to deal with his sadness. He accepts her, builds her a home, sees her as an independent being. By building a home for her, he gives her space, accepts her, deals with her.
The sadness has a place, can look out the window, or open it to get something of the world out there. It can watch the world outside from inside, retreat, hide and much more. But the boy not only builds the home, he also designs the space in front of it. A small garden where it greens and blooms and birds can find a home.
He designs a home in which sadness has a place and he designs a free space around it, which invites you to live, which makes life tangible, tangible. So the sadness has the opportunity to step out and to look at the beautiful from the outside, to feel. The sadness and the boy have become accustomed to each other, are familiar with each other. The boy's life takes place in two places.
The world outside with family and friends and with his confidant of sadness. Over time, the sadness becomes more courageous, looks out more often and every now and then he dares to go out at the hand of the boy to discover the world together.
Isn't it nice to have a place that offers protection and familiarity? A space in which one is understood, even without words?
In a special way, the sensitive, expressive illustrations by David Lichtfield and Anne Booth tell history. It is the images that touch, take you into the emotional level, let you understand. With their imagery, they tell so much more than words could ever do. They fascinate the viewer. They keep him in the fascination, let him immerse himself and process what he has heard/told.. At the same time, they stimulate the imagination, make you think, think and understand.
With the incredible play and sense of color, the illustrator creates new space for the plot with each drawing and expands our viewer's horizons.
It's not nice to be sad, we all know that and even small children already know that. Often children build a cave, a tent, to retreat into it, to hide in it. They see nothing else here in the pictures. But the special thing here is that the feeling becomes a figure. To a visible figure that interacts with the boy in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is she who gives protection and comfort, sometimes she gets the same from the boy
The sadness has many facets that we can learn to deal with..
It is a very touching book in which narrative story and the language of 3 images form a fantastic unity. The magic of illustrations creates access to a topic that is often frightening, especially for young readers. Here they experience that it does not have to be frightening.
A fantastic picture book that not only inspires children!
You can also read it wonderfully in the senior circle or give it to adults!
*Etty Hillesum
born on January 15, 1914 deceased on November 30, 1943 in Auschwitz-Birkenau was a Dutch Jew who kept a diary during the German occupation of the Netherlands, similar to Anne Frank, from 1941 to 1943 and wrote many letters. Much of it was published later. Etty Hillesum saw herself as an often depressed, emotionally disturbed young woman who longed for inner order and clarity and therefore began a therapy in 1941 in which she began to keep a diary. In the process, she also wrote down the thoughts that inspired Anne Booth to write this story. Thoughts shaped by the wartime, persecution of the Jews and their inner confrontation with themselves.
"Give your sorrow the space and protection within yourself that it deserves, because if everyone endures grief honestly and courageously, the grief that now fills the world will subside. But if instead you reserve most of the space in you for hatred and thoughts of revenge – from which new worries for others are born – then the grief in this world will never stop. And if you have given grief the space it demands, then you can really say: Life is beautiful and so rich."
It's worth reading into Etty Hillesum's diaries
"The Thinking Heart of the Barracks" 1941–1943
If you want to know abaut
David Litchfield
