A young girl believes her father is the king of fixing things. He even knows how to make her ailing mother feel better. However, after her mother passes away, she discovers that superglue and sticky tape can’t fix broken hearts. Together she and her father find a way to glue back the pieces of their lives.
This picture book is a poignant look at the way a young girl copes with the loss of her mother. Replacing and repairing damaged emotions is not always as straightforward as gluing a broken kite back together or sewing up a torn toy. By sticking together with her dad, she is able to strengthen her resilience and ability to cope with one of life’s harsher lessons – loss.
It also addresses the very real situation grieving parents may find themselves in at times of loss (of a partner or loved one); no longer able to adequately console or comfort their dependants, so that the child in turn attempts to ‘fix’ an adult’s grief, ultimately augmenting their own feelings of helplessness when this is not always possible.
The idea spawned from an incident created by my then infant child. A bowl was broken, shattered to splinters, and like many young children who view their parents as omnipresent cure-alls, she immediately presumed Daddy would fix it. It got me thinking, what if a Daddy couldn’t fix something. What if one day, he needed fixing, too? How would a child cope in that situation?
Nicky’s beautiful watercolour illustrations breathe heart and soul into this story. They are exactly the way I envisaged this family and fill me with raw emotion every time I look them.
