Written with compassion and care, a thoughtful story about a little
girl who visualizes her depression as a way of learning to cope.
Abigail has a dark cloud. It follows her everywhere. It can be a ball of
worries, a swirl of fog or a long shadow. But it's always with her,
getting in the way of things. Her dark cloud makes the other children
distant and messes with her grand jeté during ballet class. It even
takes away her appetite for birthday cake. Then one day, Abigail begins
to figure some things out about her dark cloud. Like how it's not always
the same size. How she can trap it in a sandcastle at the beach. And
how, sometimes, she can even step away from it and feel the sunshine on
her skin.
In this sensitive picture book, symbolic imagery perfectly captures how
depression can look and feel. Anna Lazowski's lyrical text together with
Penny Neville-Lee's expressive drawings provide young children with a
way to understand and talk about their own feelings. The repetition in
the text and the visual narrative pull readers in, making this an
excellent read-aloud pick to spark discussions about feelings.
Neville-Lee's art uses soft, muted colors, with lightness and color
gradually added as Abigail moves from feeling overwhelmed by her
depression to learning how to live with it and even find relief from it.
Reviewed by a child psychologist, this book is a great choice for
teaching social-emotional learning, critical thinking and character
education lessons on perseverance and resilience.
