I love a book which helps our tamariki to explore and understand their emotions, so I was thrilled to me invited to be a part of the blog tour for this wonderful new picture book by Pippa Goodhart.
Happy Sad explores the friendship between a boy, and the mermaid that he finds stranded on the shore.
When he first meets her, the mermaid is terribly sad and the boy, who has a kind heart - decides to take her home to try and make her happy again.
He tries everything he can think of to make her smile, creating a special pool for her, bringing her his treasures, shells and sea finds, but even as their friendship grows, and she is able to smile for awhile - her sadness at losing her home is too much for him to overcome. He realises that nothing can replace the home and family she misses, and even though it will make him sad to say goodbye, that the best thing for her is to help her to return home.
This book explores friendship, empathy, love and loss and comes to life with the beautiful illustrations by Augusta Kirkwood. Even though my two are past the picture book stage now, they loved the message within, especially as they've recently had to leave their home and friends and move to the other side of the world during the pandemic. The loss and sadness of those connections has been immense, with the weird duality of happy reunions with family members in their new home country, and making new friendships. They recognised that Happy Sad feeling in their own lives, and the book helped to open discussions on these emotions, and how to deal with them.
With #empathyday just around the corner this book couldn't come at a better time, and we are all thrilled to have been able to preview it in order to highly recommend it to you dear readers.
Happy Sad
Published by: Little Door Books
Written by: Pippa Goodhart
Illustrated by: Augusta Kirkwood
Follow the blog tour!
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