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)
