PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Leah Bowen has a Master of Education degree in counseling with a focus in play therapy. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist in the state of Texas where she currently practices, and she is committed to helping her child clients work through issues including abuse, depression and anxiety. Leah lives in Frisco, Texas. Holly Brochmann is an advocate for managing common mental health issues through therapy and exercise. She has a degree in journalism and enjoys creative writing both as a hobby and as a primary part of her career in public relations. Holly lives in McKinney, Texas. Shirley Ng-Benitez illustrates and writes picture books and is the owner of the design firm Gabby & Company. She lives in San Martin, California. Visit shirleyngbenitez.com
A useful picture book for encouraging social-emotional health. The rhyming text uses direct address to speak to diverse child characters who are experiencing sadness in a range of settings--and by extension, to child readers of the book. A backmatter Note to Parents and Caregivers deconstructs the intentions behind different parts of the text to: respond to sadness; normalize sadness; cope with sad feelings; and offer hope. Throughout, Ng-Benitez's sensitive, engaging illustrations do an excellent job of providing narrative specificity to the general scenarios the text suggests, elevating the book's aesthetic success as a whole....readers may also find value in its potential to foster empathy or to pre-emptively address sadness as one of many emotions we all experience. Validating and soothing. --Kirkus Reviews
