Tom’s Story

A classic, award winning NZ picture book that deals with the topic of loss and grief. It tells the tale of Tom, who is six years old when his father is killed in a boating accident. His initial difficulty in believing that his Dad has really gone, his rage at his Dad for leaving him, and the overwhelming sadness experienced by himself and his mother, is replaced by a gradual acceptance based on his mother’s ready acknowledgement of his feelings, his happy memories of shared experiences and the confidence of his belief in his Dad’s ongoing love. The simple text conveys the overwhelming feelings experienced at the time of death, the responsibility that children may shoulder to be ‘good’ all the time so as to help the remaining parent, and the importance of expressing feelings.