Mum’s Jumper opens with a scene showing a young girl visiting her mother in a hospital room, I knew from that moment that I might not get through the story without a few tears, and I was right. After the passing of her mother, the girl goes through physical and emotional processes that follow the death of a loved one; a funeral, sympathies, tears, numbness, anger and more.
The descriptions used for the girl's feelings are sensitive and sublime, they quickly took me to times I’d felt grief and it is obvious they could help those feeling grief understand its process; particularly children who are experiencing it for the first time.
Over time and with support from her father the girl learns that grief never really leaves, instead it grows with her as her world becomes bigger. Acceptance and light at the end of a dark time prevail beautifully.
Jayde Perkin’s illustrations have a bold expressive style which work in perfect unity with her writing. Jayde wrote and illustrated Mum’s Jumper in response to the loss of her own mother to cancer and with the hope to help others cope with similar grief.
Title: Mum's Jumper
Author/Illustrator: Jayde Perkin
Publisher: Book Island, $24.99
Publication Date: 10 September 2019
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781911496137
For ages: 4+
Type: Picture Book
