Where does it hurt? It’s such a simple question. If I read it aloud, I find my voice getting softer, kinder, more patient. And that’s what this Hook Book by Samina Mishra and Allen Shaw is about – softness, kindness and patience.
Sometimes, pain is easy to explain, like when you eat something that makes your tummy hurt.
Sometimes, it’s in more than one place, like if you hit your mouth on the handlebar of a cycle. Yes, your mouth hurts, but more, you want to be comforted.
And sometimes, pain is much more complicated, like when your head hurts with numbers or your heart aches with sadness.
Where Does It Hurt? looks at all these kinds of pain. It encourages us to ask where it hurts and extend a tiny little bit of help. It makes us take the first step towards easing pain.
As I read it, my heart skipped at the idea of a child’s pain being caused by a mother-shaped hole. Would I want to introduce a child to this? And then, I forced myself to think beyond the traditional ways in which children are sheltered.
As a child, did I not know children who had lost a mother?
Of course, I did. And I had no way to grasp the enormity of tragedy.
It’s through deceptively simple books that we can begin to find our answers. We may not solve a problem through kindness, but we do make the world a softer place.
Where Does It Hurt? is a gentle book that brings together humour and seriousness to talk about big themes and big emotions for little people.
| Title | Where Does It Hurt? |
| Author Illustrator | Samina Mishra Allen Shaw |
| Tags | Hook Book, Emotions |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4.5 |
| Ages | 6+ |
Other Hook Books I’ve enjoyed:
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