The Window

This tender and lovely story, perfect for the quite young, tells us about Daria and her Grandpa, and his last days.  Grandpa is in hospital, and his window looks out onto the beach and the sea, and when Daria visits, she talks to him about the view and all the things they will do together ‘when you get better’.  Grandpa’s getting better is a consistent theme, and it is only when Daria must see her Grandpa in bed needing oxygen and unable to talk, that it is apparent that he will not get better, and on a stormy day, she must be told by her loving parents that he has died.  She is bereft, and it is only when she goes with her dad to collect his things from the hospital that we realise the beach and the sea they have shared in happy memories are pictures she has drawn for Grandpa that have been put on his window to mask his gloomy view. Immensely touching illustrations of this very special relationship, the gentle telling about what has happened by her kind parents, and the repetition of phrases that the very young enjoy will make this book one to be treasured and read over and over again to help the grieving process.  An afterward for parents by Dr Shari Coombes, a family psychotherapist, on supporting grieving children will prove a real plus too.