By Breege Hoyne (author) , Beth Cole (illustrator)
"Sharing a personal story of family, love and grief in order to help others."
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Available from Stories for our hearts
Ruairí and Charlie are author Breege Hoyne’s own children and in Ruairí's Rocket to heaven, the love the two brothers share and how Ruairí’s death affected Charlie is conveyed. The book has gentle illustrations with soft pastel tones throughout as we see how much Charlie loved his younger brother and the ways they used to spend time together.
I liked that when Charlie was told the sad news of Ruairí’s death, it was conveyed in clear and simple yet still compassionate language, rather than common metaphors to “gentle” the news that could cause confusion. The story then transitions into providing a range of different examples of the things that help Charlie feel better and keep Ruairí’s memory alive, from spending time with other children who have had similar experiences to writing letters to Ruairí.
This part of the story could perhaps be more narrative, and covered like the different ways Charlie and Ruairí would spend time together at the start of the book, but I understand there are quite a few different examples and writing this the way that it has been allows for more examples to be included without the picture book getting too long for younger readers.
With the activities in a list form there would be scope here for readers to sit and discuss why each activity might make Charlie feel better, and similar things that could be done before reading on.
This is a compassionate story of a family’s grief that introduces the difficult topic of death and grief. I think that this book could be used to introduce the topic to children and also to open up a conversation and connect for children that experience grief.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading4Kids Ambassador
Ruairí’s Rocket to heaven is a children’s book written to help families, carers and professionals explore, and navigate the difficult topic of death and bereavement with children through story telling from the age of 4+ years old. It is a story heartbreak and hope, of hurting and healing, of being happy again with sadness inside our hearts and of everlasting love between two brothers.
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Available from Stories for our hearts Ruairí’s Rocket to heaven is a children’s book written to help families, carers and professionals explore, and navigate the difficult topic of death and bereavement with children through story telling from the age of 4+ years old. It is a story heartbreak and hope, of hurting and healing, of being happy again with sadness inside our hearts and of everlasting love between two brothers.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Ruairí's Rocket to heaven and determined it is suitable for children aged 3-6 years old
Ruairí's Rocket to heaven features in the following genres: Featured Books for 3+ readers, Featured Books for 5+ readers, Indie Author Books , Indie Books We Love, Recommendations, Stories about Family and Friends, PSHE: Bereavement and Grief, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational
Paperback. Not Available.
Ruairí's Rocket to heaven was written by Breege Hoyne and published by Stories for our hearts™
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