A Shelter for Sadness – Anne Booth & David Lichfield

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Sadness has come to live with me and I am building it a shelter.”

A small boy finds Sadness visits him, and he decides to make it a safe space where it can curl up small or be as B I G as it needs to be. He knows he can visit the shelter whenever he needs to – whether that’s every day or every hour. One day, Sadness might come out of the shelter but, until then, the boy is going to give it everything it needs.

This is a beautifully told tale about welcoming sadness in. Often, we see children struggling with their emotions; they often feel as though being anything but happy isn’t okay. This picture book explores how you can cope with sadness by letting it in which I think is so important to children, but especially in the current times we are living in. I especially liked the pages which explained that sometimes we are too ‘busy’ with other emotions to notice Sadness, but when you do experience it, it’s okay to not be okay.

Through the story we see how the child builds a relationship with their emotion, one which is important for children to see reflected in themselves. Not only has Anne Booth written a clear and compassionate story which will inspire empathy and understanding, David Lichfield has accompanied the tale with some beautiful illustrations.