Today’s festive treat is an absolute tear jerker. It brings together Christmas and the aims of COP26. It combines love for our planet with love for our family and with honouring our loved ones who are gone. I cannot read this book without crying. I have read it so many times over the last few years and every time I cry. Even writing this review the tears are coming. It is a beautiful beautiful Christmas story and it shares the importance of honouring, remembering and including the ones we love, have lost and miss at Christmas.
Every Christmas, after all the presents have been opened, Mia reads a letter from her Grandpa. Mia reads the letter every year, it has become a special tradition that she now shares with her children. All the family know the words of the letter off by heart. It has become a festive family tradition and a way of keeping Grandpa close although he is no longer with them.
Grandpa’s letter to Mia is wonderful. It is filled with wishes for Mia and for the planet. It is written as you can imagine your loved one writing to you, with warmth and humour and filled with fond memories of shared moments. The letter is also filled with wishes for earth and explains to Mia the need for us all to take care of the planet. Grandpa writes,
“We have to learn to love our earth again, love her as much as I love you and love me. For you and I, we are a part of this living planet, part of earth’s great family. And we are her guardians too.”
Grandpa continues with more wishes for Mia and for all children everywhere. Wishes that so many of us share. For a brighter, greener, cleaner future for all. Grandpa’s letter is poetically written by Michael Morpurgo and gloriously illustrated by Jim Field. There is so much to see and talk about on every page. I love the nature illustrations filled with rich colours, movement and light. I love the Christmas home pictures with Grandpa included in every one. And I love the way the bond between Mia and her Grandpa has been shown through the artwork.
This is a wonderful story. A definite Christmas story but one that can be enjoyed all year round.
A celebration of our love for another and our love for the world we all live in. This is a reminder that we are all connected. We are all made of star stuff. We are all made of stars.
I miss my baby so much at Christmas and this book helps me enormously. It helps me know that it is okay to include Tilda in our festivities and that keeping her close through rituals and quiet moments and family traditions is a good thing to do. It also reminds me that even in our darkest moments there is hope. There is hope for a better future for our children if we act now as stewards of the earth, as guardians of the planet, as parents and children together.
“Look after all we have loved together. Live always in rhythm, in harmony with this earth. Then all my wishes will come true for you, and all shall be well. But all shall be well only if we make it well, little Mia. There’s a lot of healing to do, a lot of loving.”
Change starts with us.