A Gorgeous Review!

Melissa at Hope for the Hopeless just posted a GORGEOUS review of the book that details how she shared the book with her daughter this week. They lost their dear cat, Lucky, in November and her daughter was having a hard time with it. I was going to hyperlink it, but for some reason it's not working, so I just copied and pasted! Here it is:

"Thursday, January 10, 2008

If You Have a Child and a Pet, You Must Have This Book...

How do we grieve the loss of a family member? When the family member we lose is of the human variety we have a wake or a funeral and get together and remember our loved one. When the family member we lose is of the pet variety we all seem to be a little stumped.

When Melisa Wells lost her beloved dog, Bijoux she turned her pain into a wonderful children's book. After looking for a book to help her and her family through their time of loss and not finding one that quite fit the bill, she decided to write her own. This week I got a chance to read it.

Most of you know that in November we lost our cat, Lucky. She was with us for 13 years and trying to figure out how to handle the situation with a 5 year old has really been a stumbling block for us.

Earlier this week I received, Remembering Ruby: For Families Living Beyond the Loss of a Pet. I opened this book with trepidation knowing that tears were on the horizon. I was correct, not because the book was sad, but because I could really relate with the story the book was telling. The book is beautiful inside and out. The colorful outside had me surprised when I found black and white pictures inside, it was helpful to see another family that had loved their pet and had lived through the loss.

This book is written for children from 4-10, I was able to finish it in a matter of minutes. I knew this was a book that Hope was going to be able to handle. Since Lucky died we've been having problems figuring out just how to explain the situation to Hope. She has been walking around saying to people. "Hi, my cat died" since November. We knew that she didn't quite know how to process this information but we weren't sure quite what to do. I waited until we had an hour to sit down and read this book and really concentrate on what the book was about.

She loved it, she also cried like a baby for about an hour and I let her because I really believe she got it this time. This was a family that she could look at and compare, they had gone through the same things we have. I can't tell you how many times we went through the book and pointed out pictures. Lucky used to do the same thing as Ruby did, look at Ruby catching the snow ball, this book says it's okay to cry and cry we did.

You know she hasn't said, "Hi, my cat died" since we've read this book. I think we've finally managed to make her understand what happened and I will never be able to thank Melisa Wells enough for helping me help my daughter.

There is also a very helpful "Parent Information" chapter at the back of the book that gives a few ideas on how to tackle this topic with your children.

Seriously, if you have a pet and a child, you need to have this book. We never want to think of our pet dying but when they do we need to make sure we have a way to explain it to our children. If you would like to purchase Remembering Ruby: For Families Living Beyond the Loss of a Pet you can click on the widget on the right side of this page or you can purchase it from Barnes & Noble.

Get it, trust me you will never be sorry, this is a beautiful little book written about a wonderful little doggy who touched a families life and changed them forever.

posted by Melissa at 12:39 PM"

Thanks Melissa for all the kind words! xoxo