Just So Stories

EK Books

April 2023

9781922539496 

RRP: $24.99

Just in the past week I’ve had two children in my relief class who really could have connected with this charming book about feeling disconnected with a loved one.

Many children have a separation anxiety, and while there have always been children whose parent has had to work ‘away’, it is perhaps justifiable to say that in these days of FIFO adding to those parents who are in the forces on deployment, or have some other job which takes them away from home, there are even more numerous kiddos who yearn for their absent parental figure.

LIttle Tug and Ship are a perfect pair, and together they make a terrific team. When Ship needs to go back to sea to deliver or collect more cargo, Tug continues on with her work of pushing and pulling but a little more glumly, and a little less bravely. She wonders if Ship misses her as much as she misses Ship. The answer to that is ‘of course’ and when Ship returns and talks about sights seen and places been, Tug is reassured in the knowledge that Ship has held her in mind throughout.

It is a beautiful and sensitively written analogy of the love and connection between child and parent/caregiver and one which will reassure any little one of that invisible string that connects us to each other. The text is just sensationally expressive as Ship describes the sights seen: “…where the sea glitters like crystals, and jellyfish dance in shimmering shoals” and will create wonderful imagined visuals for kiddos., which I can see easily lead into some artwork. I love the illustrations that accompany this gentle text, and the way they echo the wide expanse of sea and sky, and the relative sizes of both Ship and Tug, both in relation to each other but also their surroundings.

All in all this is a beautiful book which will speak to your young readers and empower them to share their own feelings around their feelings of abandonment and separation. Highly recommended for readers from around 3 upwards.