A Shelter for Sadness

by Anne Booth, David Litchfield (Illustrator)

Overview

This poignant and heartwarming story explores the many faces of sadness and addresses the importance of mental health in a child-friendly way.

A small boy creates a shelter for his sadness so that he can visit it whenever he needs to, and the two of them can cry, talk, or just sit. The boy knows that one day his sadness may come out of the shelter, and together they will look out at the world and see how beautiful it is.

In this timely consideration of emotional wellbeing, Anne Booth has created a beautiful depiction of allowing time and attention for difficult feelings. Stunningly atmospheric illustrations by David Litchfield personify sadness as a living being, allowing young readers to more easily connect with the story's themes of emotional literacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682633397
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 11.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Anne Booth worked in many roles before becoming a children's writer, from teaching English in Italy to organizing arts and crafts in a nursing home. Now Anne writes highly acclaimed children's fiction and picture books; Girl with a White Dog was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie. Anne lives with her family in a charming village in England.

David Litchfield is a multi-award-winning author and illustrator. His work has been exhibited in shows across Europe and America and has also appeared in newspapers and magazines. His picture book, The Bear & the Piano, was nominated for the CLIP Kate Greenaway medal and was also a Waterstones Best Illustrated Children's Book. He lives with his family in England.

Editorial Reviews

"Booth and Litchfield propose not only accepting sadness, but actually trying to take care of it by building a shelter and keeping it safe. . . . The art work is simple but evocative, in an atmospheric palette befitting the story's content. This would be an excellent conversation starter for readers who are grappling with strong emotions or for lessons on SEL."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

11/01/2021

Gr 1–5—This story imagines sadness as a fuzzy blob with stick arms and legs that lives right outside the child, a metaphor intended to help readers accept and cope with sadness. Booth and Litchfield propose not only accepting sadness, but actually trying to take care of it by building a shelter and keeping it safe. The shelter has sensory items that sadness might find pleasant, e.g., a candle, lamplight, or the scent of roses. There are also times to leave sadness alone and to go experience other feelings. The art work is simple but evocative, in an atmospheric palette befitting the story's content. This would be an excellent conversation starter for readers who are grappling with strong emotions or for lessons on SEL. VERDICT An excellent choice for collections needing resources on social emotional learning, aimed at those students who already think abstractly. —Debbie Tanner, S. D. Spady Montessori Elem., FL

School Library Journal

2021-08-18
A child tends to their sadness.

“I am building a shelter for my sadness and welcoming it inside,” declares a skinny White child with brown hair. They begin to pile sticks in a clearing, surrounded by tall, thin tree trunks rich with twinkling lights. Illuminating the scene in a pale teal glow is their sadness, an oval-shaped cluster of sketch lines that might be mistaken for Humpty Dumpty’s ghost. Throughout, forest and light frame the sadness as its human caretaker “giv[es] it a space” to do “anything it needs to.” It can be loud or quiet, it can run or stand still, it can sit in darkness or light, “or anything in between.” It can even “breath in” (a regrettable typo) the smell of roses that bloom around the shelter that the child lovingly maintains. The sadness is as cute as a pensive figure can be, and the decorative whimsy of Litchfield’s illustrations softens the melancholy. Psychologically, it seems useful and healthy to visualize compassion and acceptance toward one’s own feelings, and these meditative scenes provide gentle emotional prompts in that direction. Still, the metaphor plods on a bit longer than is compelling; by the time the child starts visiting their sadness every day with tea, the point feels belabored beyond meaning. The pair’s final walk into the sunset reinforces the complex, necessary idea that beautiful and difficult emotions can coexist.

Moody contemplation made engaging with luminous artwork. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews