Press reviews for: A Sky of Diamonds
Dee Gardner, Senior Social Work Practitioner, Fireworks & Feelings Pre & Post Bereavement Project, St Francis Hospice, Essex, UK
A diamond of a book! So often the awfulness of a parent dying is sanitised, but this little gem tackles a difficult event with sensitivity and realism. It offers a young person truth and an explanation of what grief is. The loss of a mother changes the life of a child forever, but throughout the story hope, along with the idea that 'different' can be OK, is offered gently. I would recommend this book to all professionals working in the field of bereavement. This book will become a classic and will help many young people and adults.
Healthy Books blog
A beautifully written, beautifully illustrated book that not only will help children to understand death and its finality, but will also give them ways of helping themselves and others to cope with the inevitable problems that come to everyone who suffers loss. Outstanding!
Augene Nanning, counsellor
BACP Children & Young PeopleThis is a warm, honest story that deals with Mia's feelings about her mother's death, and her creative reactions, which include becoming the ice queen whose heart feels no pain... Gibbs successfully waves a convincing illusion that had me believing Mia was the storyteller and Gibbs a co-writer or collaborator. It is Gibbs' skillful use of the words and language of a child of Mia's age, and the childlike illustrations, that makes this story of pain, anger and everything grief is, genuinely sound as if it is coming from Mia herself... Although a book for children, adults could learn much about the grieving process and useful ways to help children through it.