“Ed has a teddy, Lola has a blanket, Penny has her Elly… But Little One is mine”
There are plenty of picture books where a child loses a treasured toy, and is then reunited with it at the end of the story (Teddy Took the Train by Nicki Greenberg, The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson, and Dogger by Shirley Hughes, are a couple of wonderful examples that come to mind). But reader be warned: Little Oneis not one of those stories.
Celebrated author Jane Godwin reports the story of Little One comes from her own memories of the loss of a special toy in childhood, and seeing history repeating itself with her niece losing a precious doll on a family holiday. For myself, as the owner of a doll in childhood who was so much more than a toy, this story snapped my heart strings and stayed with me for days after reading it.
Themes of loss, grief, and coping are in abundance in children’s didactic picture books these days, explaining to children explicitly why loss may occur, and providing parents with a tool for exploring those challenging feelings. However, every now and then, a children’s story comes along that deals with the true pain of loss; not to educate and support, but to allow us to feel empathy, vulnerability, and sadness.
Grief is a part of life, and the growth that comes from it is a positive and necessary part of growing up. Loss takes children from their innocent world of wonder, and shows them the serious and sometimes scary true nature of life. The loss of a treasured childhood object is sometimes an event that adults don’t fully understand or can overlook; after all, these transitional objects are not as important as a pet or family member. But to a child, it is a part of their identity, and is as real as any living being.
When Pippi loses her doll “Little One”, there is much searching for her, offered words of support and sympathy, and even an attempt to replace her. Godwin’s simple phrases are the perfect echo of a child telling the story, and emphasize her emotional turmoil around accepting the loss. The use of single word sentences on some pages are symbolic of the sense of loss the story conveys. Similarly, Evans’ simple yet haunting illustrations are reminiscent of memories or dreams; the slight blurring of edges and use of soft colouring seems to make her drawings almost shimmer. One double page spread depicting an empty, windswept playground with the single line “I don’t know where she went” is one of the most visceral pages from a children’s book in recent memory.
This beautiful story is perfect for your home collection, classroom activities in the early primary years, and as a gift. Read it with a box of tissues close by!
“Ed has a teddy, Lola has a blanket, Penny has her Elly… But Little One is mine”
