New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) You left your jokes and funny faces in my mind; You left our secrets and your knitting behind; I’m still sad. I’ll always be; I love you times infiniteeeeeeeey; You don’t mind that I can’t rhyme; I don’t know how to end this; Will someone help me?
To help Swara, you’d have to dive into her world during the lockdown. Feel the almost-nine-year-old’s heart break as she loses her favourite person ever, Pitter Paati. Swara pursues clues to find her, but stumbles upon a crime instead. Expectedly, no one believes her.
Will Swara and her friends from the detective squad find the Ruth of the Matter in time?
Told with humour and sparkle, Jane De Suza’s “When the World Went Dark” (Penguin), set in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, is a moving story for children (and their caregivers), about adjusting to a new normal and about loss of a loved one – and how to eventually heal from it. Accompanied by gorgeous illustrations, it will help children and every reader see the light and find hope even in the darkest of times.
It points children nine and above to a journey to help process the loss of a loved one, communicate with adults in order to cope, and how to make their voices and feelings heard. Further, it will help parents explain the concept of death, loss and acceptance to their young children, and help bring them closer.
It also has additional advice from a mental health specialist for caregivers on how to identify signs of unexplained changes in their child’s behaviour when they go through loss, and what they can do to help the child cope and heal.
Jane De Suza is known for her quirky books: the SuperZero series, Uncool, Happily Never After and The Spy Who Lost Her Head, among others. She writes a humour column for The Hindu, had a parenting column for Good Housekeeping and is now co-building an app.
A management graduate and a creative director, De Suza currently lives in Singapore with her family. While travelling across various literature fests, schools and workshops, she grew fascinated by the creative potential of children, from which comes this book.
–IANS
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