Olive and Babyland
by
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“Daddy, Daddy!” said Olive, skipping along the sidewalk beside her daddy. “What is ‘dying’? Samantha’s grandmother died, and I’m not sure what that is."
Olive’s daddy paused.He scratched his chin and stuck out his lower lip. “Well,” he said finally, “I can tell you a story about something that happened when I was a little boy.” “Alright,” said Olive, looking up at him.
They walked into a nearby park and sat on a bench under a big oak tree.
”When I was a little boy,” began Olive’s daddy,” I was walking hand in hand with my mom on a beautiful day. We saw many birds. We saw a bright red cardinal and some plump robins.
Suddenly, we found a baby bird lying on the sidewalk. We looked up at a tree and saw that the baby bird had fallen out of the nest.
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About the Book
When five-year-old Olive learns that Samantha’s grandmother has died, she goes to her daddy and asks what dying is. In order to answer her question, Olive’s daddy tells her a tale from when he was a little boy about a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. The story of what happens next helps Olive understand that death is about love.
This children’s story seeks in a loving, ecumenical, and sensitive way to help children understand what death is.
“March Bracken has, again, articulated death in a manner that is light and natural. Discussions of death can be just as difficult with adults as with children. This story breathes its ‘love light’ onto a topic we find so challenging to approach. … I can absolutely see how this soft tale of a child and her father could positively impact those dealing with stages of dementia. The story is refreshing, brief and honest.”
—Tricia James, LCSW, hospice social worker
“In Olive and Babyland, March Bracken has written a tender and evocative tale of death and rebirth for children and their adults, a tale that explains death in gentle words and images that speak in ‘love light.’”
—Bertha Rogers, poet, master teaching artist, founding director of Bright Hill Press and Literary Center
About the Author
Marchie Bracken is a social worker and poet living in Chicago; she has also done hospice social work. She is a mother and a grandmother, and her sons and grandchildren inspire her writing.
Jordan Nicole Kelley is a young, free-spirited artist from Nashville, Tennessee. She enjoys all kinds of art, but her main focus is illustrations of people and animals from different locations. Currently she is attending college to become an illustrator.