Ruairí's Rocket to heaven

LoveReading4Kids Says

Available from Stories for our hearts

Ruairí and Charlie are author Breege Hoyne’s own children and in Ruairí's Rocket to heaven, the love the two brothers share and how Ruairí’s death affected Charlie is conveyed. The book has gentle illustrations with soft pastel tones throughout as we see how much Charlie loved his younger brother and the ways they used to spend time together. I liked that when Charlie was told the sad news of Ruairí’s death, it was conveyed in clear and simple yet still compassionate language, rather than common metaphors to “gentle” the news that could cause confusion. The story then transitions into providing a range of different examples of the things that help Charlie feel better and keep Ruairí’s memory alive, from spending time with other children who have had similar experiences to writing letters to Ruairí. This part of the story could perhaps be more narrative, and covered like the different ways Charlie and Ruairí would spend time together at the start of the book, but I understand there are quite a few different examples and writing this the way that it has been allows for more examples to be included without the picture book getting too long for younger readers. With the activities in a list form there would be scope here for readers to sit and discuss why each activity might make Charlie feel better, and similar things that could be done before reading on. 

This is a compassionate story of a family’s grief that introduces the difficult topic of death and grief. I think that this book could be used to introduce the topic to children and also to open up a conversation and connect for children that experience grief.

Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading4Kids Ambassador

LoveReading4Kids Ambassador

Find This Book In