Reviewed by
Kathleen Grace
Coen is in bed. He is having a ‘sniffling, sighing, sobbing kind of day.’ His family – mother, father, and sister Junie – gather around him, trying to bring him out of his gloomy feelings. However, Coen can’t respond. He feels ‘like a lost kite: loose in the breeze, with feelings that tangled like string.’
Junie
pounces on him, saying he doesn’t look sick. She even tries to give her brother
his favourite teddy. Mum tells a joke; Dad pulls a funny face. Next the three
family members snuggle close to Coen and wait.
Eventually Coen
feels the warmth and love of his family and sits up. ‘His tiptoeing fingers
crept out from under the blanket to grasp his dad’s hand, and the confusing
feelings started to untangle.’ Finally, he’s out of his funk and looking
forward to tomorrow.
The text of
this picture book is well-written and poignant; the illustrations – which depict
a mixed family (dark-skinned Mum and Coen, white-skinned Dad and Junie) – are beautifully
rendered.
At the
front of the book the reader can learn about the author (who is a psychologist)
and illustrator (an indigenous Australian), while at the end of the book the
author has a full-page note advising adults on how to support their child if
they are experiencing symptoms of depression or emotional distress.
This is,
without doubt, a book for an adult to share with a child, ideal for
readers aged 4 to 9 years.
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