When her father feels sad, a little girl finds ways to keep the bonds of love alive.
Title: Together Things
Author: Michelle Vasiliu
Publisher: EK Books
Classification: Fiction
Type: Picture book
Themes: mental health, relationships, change, depression
What's it about?
Her mother says you can’t see her daddy’s hurt because it’s inside his head …
One in five adults experiences depression in their lifetime, but young children are often left in the dark when their mother or father suddenly can’t play like they used to.
Together Things helps young children to understand that, while it is okay for them to feel mad or sad about this, sometimes they must do different things together while their parent focuses on their mental health and getting better.
Embrace
It's great seeing a father-daughter relationship explored. Mental health is
the key theme in this book and is sensitively approached.
Beware
Naming depression might have made it stronger as would medication not being implied as a "magic cure" of sorts.
My Thoughts
This is a new release by EKBooks in February 2020.
As mentioned above mental health is a key theme in this book and I truly
appreciate that it looks at it from the parent having depression and how that
alters the relationship with the kid. Most of my readers would be unaware that
three years ago I was diagnosed with severe depression and severe anxiety. As a
single parent with two very young children at the time, it was an extremely
emotional time for me. While my children start school tomorrow and a routine
can be established, I still struggle with my own mental health. There is a huge
stigma still attached to parents who suffer from depression. Many people just
don't understand how much it can impact a person's life as we are constantly
told to look after ourselves - but of course, as a parent, you continue to put
your children first with what they need.
I feel that Michelle approached the topic really well.
With that disclosure, I feel that Michelle approached the topic really well.
I might have preferred the depression actually being called out and named, it
helps to be able to say that the condition has a name. The other mentioned is
medication - not all sufferers can take medication (myself being one as so far
all have been ineffective) so a mention of other activities might have been
useful - such as plans to do something at a future point to celebrate being "better"
so to speak.
Still, I love the way it showed how the daughter adjusted to the new ways
that her dad could play with her versus the old. It showed that the dad had
gone from being more outgoing and outdoors, to preferring to stay inside.
The illustrations are by Gwynneth, whose name is probably familiar with you
all by now as I've featured a number of books with her artistic talent. This
one has a lively but warm semi-realistic style that complements the text and
helps readers to really connect that this is something real and not a
fantasy.
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