‘I wanted a book to hold us together’: Chloe Hooper on helping her sons face their father’s death – The Guardian

Bright, shining books spilled from my children’s bookshelves. Their pages, a carnival of anthropomorphised animals dancing, singing, leading their fullest lives. CS Lewis believed “a children’s story is the best art form for something you have to say”, but none of these ones contained what we needed to tell our six- and three-year-old sons. Their father had just been diagnosed with an aggressive leukaemia.

His prognosis was poor and one night I typed “children’s book” and “death” into an internet search engine. Each title that appeared filled me with heart-knotting dread. It’s not that we’d avoided discussing mortality with our kids, but neither had we leaned into it. As I clicked “Add to cart”, I wondered if one of these books would like to handle the conversation for us?

Before long, I picked the packages out of the mail. I took them furtively to my study and the books were … clunky, mawkish … as if my own awkwardness about this topic had brought forth a haul of embarrassing…

Read Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/08/i-wanted-a-book-to-hold-us-together-chloe-hooper-on-helping-her-sons-face-their-fathers-death

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