Feathers is a beautiful, gentle book about a young boy remembering his mother. The story starts with the boy running in the garden trying to catch some floating feathers. He tells his dad that mum said feathers help you capture good dreams. His father now joins in.
The delightful watercolour pictures are joyful as the boy and his father run around with smiles on their faces, catching feathers. With the feather under his pillow dad puts him to bed that night and he has lovely, happy dreams of his mother.
Picture books are a relatable way of learning how to talk about and explore difficult emotions in an engaging and meaningful way.
Feathers gently explores the theme of loss. Death is never mentioned only that mum's star is shining in the sky. The young boy and his father are remembering his mother in a happy way. I loved that the inside cover has delightful watercolour illustrations of different feathers labelled with the relevant birds.
Symbolising loss has a beneficial effect on healing and I know people who have used sightings of rainbows, birds and cloud formations to remember loved ones. Karen Hendriks use of feathers as a symbol is soft, gentle and calming.
I think this would be a valuable resource for any family that has lost a loved one be it mother, father or grandparent. It would also be valuable for general classroom discussion.
ages 3 - 7 years
5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
About the author
Karen lives on the south coast of New South Wales with her family and little dog Elmo. Being by the sea, with sandy toes and close to nature is what makes Karen happy. She rides her pushbike with Elmo in the basket along the beaches.
Karen loves to travel anywhere, whenever she can. She keeps on dreaming and planning of things to see and do. But to Karen the simple things in life are just as important, like writing and laughing and having fun.
Karen can be found writing in local coffee shops or even on scraps of paper or typing some random idea into her phone. She believes kindness is catching just like hugs from picture books.
With the lightness of a feather in the breeze Karen hopes her stories reach and find you.
About the illustrator
Kim can vividly remember being amazed at the age of 4 when she mixed red and white together and got pink. It was magic!
Her mastery of pink led Kim to many other colours, and a love of art began.
A move to Melbourne, led Kim to discover the glorious world of children’s book illustration... and she often declares that she has ‘the best job in the world’.
She loves using layers of collage and watercolour washes, and creating sweet, heartwarming characters. She also sometimes uses ink, acrylics and hand-carved stamps
