Summary:
This beautifully produced and illustrated book takes your child by the hand to the magical land of Rosador's people.
The stories can be enjoyed just as they are, good old-fashioned and pleasurable adventure story telling, but the themes within the stories can help troubled children to feel safe to talk or think about issues in their own lives that may be disturbing them.
Rosador and her friends are faced with issues such as death, divorce and separation of parents and bullying; all issues that parents may find it hard to talk to their children about, especially when they may be feeling emotionally fragile at that time themselves.
The book has many illustrations and the pages are large with a well-spaced typeface making the book attractive to the widest audience of children. It is also suitable for parents to read to their children, and offers solace and comfort for both.
You will be following Rosador and her friends as they make their way through many adventures. Separated into four parts, with each of these comprising two stories, the book has eight bedtime stories in all. Each of these eight bedtime stories will take around 20 minutes to read outloud, and each ends with a reassuring message for the child.
My Review:
Through the use of various fantasy characters, Emma Piers is able o make children feel more at ease and respond better to challenging situations like bullying, insomnia and anxiety, adult separation, and bereavement. Even though the book may look overwhelming to parent to read, what is great about Rosador and the Dark Forest, is that it is broken up into four separate parts, each with two stories, that can be read one at a time. This gives parents a chance to really read and talk about the stories in detail with their children. And, with 2 compilation CDs that goes along with the book, you can sit with your child and read along with the CD. I especially loved the last two stories about bullying and insomnia and anxiety. The first two dealt with bereavement and adult separation/divorce. I felt that most young children could relate to the 3rd and 4th stories in this book more.
My own wish is that it would have contained more illustrations. Having told each story with the use of fantasy characters, one would expect to see fantasy-like illustrations and lots of them. I understand that this book is supposed to be a calming tool for children and that the author/illustrator may not wanted to splash bright colors and tons of illustrations with each story, as it may take away at the point of each story -- to help make a child understand and feel comforted. But, I know that it will be awhile for my daughter to truly appreciate and understand the messages of each of these stories, as she loves illustrations.
About the Author:
After extensive studying and training, including a fully accredited British Association of Counselling Advanced Diploma, my working life has been spent primarily with children. I've been fortunate to have worked within a broad variety of different environments, which I feel has helped me explore different perspectives and not become too rigid in my thinking. My working life has included being practice counsellor within an NHS doctors practice, running a special educational needs department as Senco in a mainstream secondary school and working as an evening matron in charge of the welfare of girls ages 7-13. During this time, my love of creating children’s stories became re-ignited from evenings spent reading and creating stories for my own children, nephews and nieces. I tried to create stories that would soothe and settle the children, especially the newer school arrivals who were often feeling homesick and disorientated.
I believe it should be the birthright of children to spend lots of time in natural environments, where they can watch the cycles of life. Here, they can become aware of the cycles of birth and death, in trees, plants and animals, just as they happen in human form. Our stories are interwoven within natural landscapes that haven't been subjected to the 'civilising' process of exploitative ownership and management, based on the erroneous thinking that we are in some way superior to mother earth.
Northern American people regarded the earth as their grandmother and sky as their grandfather. My intention is to facilitate and pass on the inspiring messages of ecological and spiritual teachers, through the work that Mark and I do together.
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book by the author in order to write up an honest review. The views above are mine and mine alone.
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