Ruairí's Rocket to heaven - A Children's Story Book
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ABOUT THE BOOK
Ruairí’s Rocket to heaven is a children’s story book for families, carers and professionals to explore, and navigate the difficult topic of death and bereavement with children from the age of 4+ years old.
With gentle illustrations and clear language the book takes young readers into life with two brothers, Charlie and Ruairí. The first part of the book describes the boys’ life together e.g. playing, bath-time, cuddles. The second part focusses on Charlie’s life after his brothers death. It explores feelings like sadness, fear, anger and confusion and looks at different ways to express grief and find comfort in memories, through Charlie’s experiences.
This is a story of heartbreak and hope, of hurting and healing, and of being happy again with sadness inside our hearts. A story of everlasting love between two brothers.
Unfortunately it’s a story that isn’t just my family’s, many young children go through this.
Our book can offer comfort and support to young children and their families during their own incredibly difficult times and that means the world to us. Each time Ruairí’s Rocket helps another family, Ruairí’s life continues to make a difference.
The story was illustrated by Beth Cole. Beth is an amazingly talented, considered and intuitive artist. She illustrated my boys and the emotion inside each memory beautifully.
You can find her work at instagram.com/herebythewoods
This book is a gem! It can be so incredibly difficult to find books for siblings who experienced the death of a baby and had some time and memories at home before their death. There are several books about pregnancy/infant loss for siblings and even a handful of books on the death of older siblings, but this category can be very difficult to find. So grateful to have this book filling the gap. Highly recommend this book.
FOR MORE REVIEWS PLEASE CHECK OUT THE 'REVIEWS' SECTION OF THE WEBSITE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi there!
I’m Breege. I live in South West London with my husband Shane and my teenage son Charlie, who ground me in all that is good and right in this world, our goofy dog Rufus and our cat Luna.
My life was devastatingly turned upside down and inside out, my heart shattered into pieces, when our younger son, our beautiful Ruairí, died just six weeks after his first birthday in 2018. His life and his death have altered mine irrevocably, have changed who I am and how I live. As I walk this earth without my son here I have found a new and different meaning through writing. It has become how I make sense of myself, how I honour and remember my son, and I hope it helps others too.
You can find me at instagram.com/storiesforourhearts
As part of my writing I have written Ruairí’s Rocket to heaven.
After Ruairí died I turned to books as a way to help my older son Charlie who was 7 at the time. Supporting Charlie grieve the death of his brother was my biggest and most important challenge, second only to facing my own grief. Yet I couldn’t find what he needed to help him. Most of the books I found were abstract or about the death of pets, grandparents or parents dying. They often used confusing language too, like ‘Saying Good bye’. And I couldn’t find any specifically about the unique heartbreak of a sibling dying.
At the same time Charlie was drawing a lot and he drew a picture of his brother going to heaven in a rocket. That magical idea inspired me to write the story of my boys, as brothers together. Initially I wrote the story in the notes app on my phone, I think I wanted to capture all those sweet memories of my two boys' lives together. From time to time I edited it and added to it, mostly details about Charlie’s experiences grieving his brother. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point the idea that it could be a children’s book started to take shape in my mind. It could be the book we needed but couldn’t find.
Then, in late 2021 I felt brave and able enough to truly give it a go. With Charlie as Chief Editor ensuring I captured everything exactly right we set about creating our book. I was very fortunate to find Beth Cole who illustrated our memories wonderfully. And finally, in January 2023, I published Ruairí’s Rocket to heaven.
The story as a book had grown into one of heartbreak and hope, of hurting and healing, of being happy again with sadness inside our hearts, and of everlasting love between my boys. With gentle illustrations and clear language (for ages 4+) the book explores feelings like sadness, fear, anger and confusion and looks at different ways to express grief and remember siblings, through Charlie’s experiences.
Knowing that our book can offer comfort and support to young children and their families during their own incredibly difficult times means the world to us. Each time Ruairí’s Rocket helps another family, Ruairí’s life continues to make a difference.
The original rocket that Charlie drew hangs in our home. He went on to edit it as it looks now in the book, a blue rocket with PlayStation symbols: blue because it was his brother's favourite colour and PlayStation symbols because, well because they are so cool! He is very proud of it, and I am incredibly proud of him.
Shooting Star Children’s Hospices provided my family with invaluable bereavement support after Ruairí’s death. It is with much gratitude that the profit from book sales are donated to this charity for the truly wonderful work they do. I am incredibly thankful to have their support in helping me launch my book, and also humbled to have their endorsement.