Today is my stop on the blog tour for
Sarah Ann Juckes’ The Night Animals
This is the story of Nora and her mummy
And the effects of mum’s PTSD
On their life
Nora’s mum is a paramedic
And the things she has seen
Have led to trauma and stress
That she finds hard to live with
She has good days and bad days
But the bad days are getting worse
It is just Nora and mum
And though Nora insists that
They are fine on their own
It soon becomes clear that
They are not fine
They are both hurting
And struggling
And they both need help
That they do not know
How to ask for or accept
I have absolutely loved getting to know Nora
And her mum
I have loved following their journey
To finding the help that they need
I wrote a babbling post on Instagram
About the power and beauty of this story
The moment I finished reading it
Sarah’s storytelling afffected me hugely
Here is that first post
Please do take a moment to read it
In The Night Animals
Nora is visited by a menagerie
Of ghost animals
She has seen ghost animals before
When her father left
And now they are back
When once again she is
Hurt and alone
And does not know what to do
Nora wants to look after her mum
She wants to protect her
But she needs help
Through the story the ghost animals
Lead Nora to new friends
They help her talk to her teacher
They give her strength and courage
And they show Nora
The power and joy that can
Be found in friendship
The strength and support that
Comes from asking for
And accepting help
Nora makes friends with Kwame
And their relationship grows through
The pages of the book
We see Nora bloom as her
Friendship with Kwame blossoms
Nora and The Night Animals shows us
That courage, strength, resilience and hope
Come in all shapes and sizes
This book shows young readers
And perhaps most importantly young carers
That asking for and accepting help
Is a brave thing to do
It is not giving up
It is doing what needs to be done to carry on
Sarah Ann Juckes beautifully and poetically
Tells us all that we should
Never be afraid of asking for help
We should never feel that we have to
Hide how we are feeling or
What we are going through
We do not have to be alone
And by sharing our stories
We will without doubt be helping others
Who feel the way we do
The Night Animals is a
Brilliant and beautiful book
For children and for grown ups
It has really helped me
Feel able to be kinder to myself
As a bereaved mother with PTSD
Sarah’s story shows us all that
We do not need to be alone
We can reach out and people will help us
People want to help
This is also a book that will help
Young readers develop empathy for others
And understand the importance of kindness
A story that will encourage us to think about
How we can be a good friend
To the people around us
How we can help and support others
Nora’s story is a journey of self discovery
And we have found that through this story
We have been learning about ourselves too
What our fears and worries are
Who we can reach out to when we need help
Which ghost animals we need in our lives
To help us and guide us
As Nora’s ghost animals did
The fox showed Nora that being alone
All the time if not helpful
The fox led Nora to Kwame
She helped her find a friend
The hare showed Nora
That things were not fine
The raven showed Nora that
We all need help
And we can all help others
Kindness matters to all of us
Otter showed Nora that
It was time for her to try and be braver
For herself and to let people help her
This powerful, poetic and moving story
Is about being honest with ourselves
Facing our fears
And finding help when we need it
I cannot recommend this book enough
I read The Night Animals alone first
And am now exploring it with my children
We have created our own ghost animals
After watching Sarah’s Waterstones Virtual Visit
And inspired by Sharon King-Chai’s stunning illustrations
And the children have written about their animals too
Imaagining a first meeting between a character
And their ghost animal
We also used the description of Nora
Meeting her ghost fox for the first time
To create some black out poetry
Which is an activity that we love
And helped us to focus on Sarah’s
Beautiful storytelling
This is a perfect read aloud for
Children’s Mental Health Month
And I just know that this book is going to help
So many children, teachers and families
Sarah has an incredible way with words
Of writing sensitively about huge emotions
And difficult life events
Is one of the best books I have ever read
It really helped me as a bereaved mother
I made my husband read it
My uncle and my mother in law
I think everyone should read
Sarah’s books
The Night Animals also feels like
It was written just for me
As a mother with her own
Mental health battles
I am so grateful to Sarah for
Writing these brilliant and beautiful books
I had the opportunity to ask Sarah
Which books she has read
That she felt really spoke to her
The children were also able to ask
Sarah Ann a question
They asked
If you could visit any story setting where would it be?
and
If you could meet one story book character who would it be?
Here are her answers
If you have not yet read The Night Animals
Waterstone’s Children’s Book Of The Month
For January 2023
Please do
It is a story that will stay with me
For a very very long time
And do not just take my word for how brilliant it is
Do also check out the rest of the tour
All the posts make for great reading
And Sarah answers more questions for each blogger too
