href="#fb3_img_img_820aa270-4319-584a-9ced-1793eeb74e64.jpg" alt="image"/> Saffy’s Angel HILARY MCKAY
| CURE FOR GROWN-UPS | Horton Hatches the Egg DR SEUSS |
This story doesn’t represent birth parents who give up a child for adoption in the most charitable light, but at times of extreme exhaustion, or when you get the ‘You’re not my real mother/father anyway’ line hurled at you, the depiction of the faithful Horton will be a comfort. Having agreed to sit on an egg laid by Mayzie – a lazy bird who’d rather soak up some rays on Palm Beach and delegate the incubation job to someone else – Horton keeps his word, protecting the egg through rain and sleet, and sitting there even when the tree bends beneath his weight, when icicles form on his trunk, and when a hunter takes aim – Seuss’s endlessly inventive illustrations bringing all these travails to life in the way that only he can. When the chick finally hatches and Mayzie has the audacity to claim it as hers after all, we’re in no doubt who the rightful parent is. Whenever you – or your child – need reminding, adopt Horton’s rallying cry as your mantra: ‘I meant what I said/And I said what I meant . . ./An elephant’s faithful/One hundred per cent!’
SEE ALSO: anger • different, feeling • feelings, not able to express your • parents, having
adventure, needing an
When there’s none to be had at a child’s own back door, send them on one in a book.
THE TEN THIRTY-NINE4 BEST BOOKS FOR TAKING YOU ON AN ADVENTURE
