A Shelter for Sadness

Sadness has come to live with me and I am building it a shelter. I am building a shelter for my sadness and welcoming it inside. A small boy creates a shelter for his sadness, a safe space where Sadness is welcome, where it can curl up small, or be as big as it can be, where it can be noisy or quiet, or anything in between.

The boy can visit the shelter whenever he needs to, every day, sometimes every hour, and the two of them will cry and talk or just sit, saying nothing. And the boy knows that one day Sadness may come out of the shelter, and together they will look out at the world, and see how beautiful it is. A poignant and heart-warming picture book exploring the importance of making space and time for our own griefs, small or large, sensitively visualized with David Litchfield’s stunning illustration.

Anne Booth was inspired to write this book by the words of Etty Hillesum, a Holocaust victim who wrote: ‘Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. But if you do instead reserve most of the space inside you for hatred and thoughts of revenge-from which new sorrows will be born for others-then sorrow will never cease in this world. And if you have given sorrow the space it demands, then you may truly say: life is beautiful and so rich.’ (Esther ‘Etty’ Hillesum (15 Jan 1914 – 30 Nov 1943)