I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Disclosure here.
Reading age
6-11
Genre
Children book
Publisher
Publication date
March 22, 2022
Our summary of the book
A touching story about a young mermaid dealing with feelings of loss and grief.
Alana, a mermaid, had lived a good life with her family. One day, Alana is told that her grandmother will die and that her heart is weak. The young mermaid is confused by this and must learn the true meaning of grief.
Paige’s thoughts (12yo)
Love is the Gift gives us background information on life in the ocean. Throughout the story, there is always a reference to the sea as the story flows.
I admired the grandmother’s teachings about love. Alana has a lot to learn about the true meaning of love after death. Alana’s curiosity about the meaning should be an example to others dealing with grief.
The theme of this book is to teach children to process feelings of grief. I recommend this book to anyone who has a hard time dealing with grief and wants to learn more about this tricky subject.
Laly’s thoughts (10yo)
This book is a touching story that speaks the truth in all our hearts. It tells us the critical message of letting someone go no matter how badly you want them to stay. The mom of Alana was beautiful. It was a fantastic story written in verse. This book was great and honorable.
PS: The mermaids didn’t have coconuts, which was good because I don’t particularly like it when mermaids have coconuts.
My rating
About the author
“Joanna P.A Moore is a British author, BACP practicing therapeutic counsellor since 2007 and has over 18 years of youth work and program management experience, supporting young people age 8 to 21 in inner city areas. Developing young peoples confidence and self-esteem through life skills and informal learning.
Joanna was inspired to write ‘Love is the Gift’ after the death of a very significant and influential person in her life in 2017. Also living with a rare life-threatening autoimmune condition ‘Addison’s Disease’ and having two small children at the time, Joanna felt that there was not enough literature out there to support her own children through the difficult feelings surrounding death. Wanting to create a tool that could help her own children and others, she embarked on creating the beautiful and poetical story about Elana the mermaid.” – Amazon.
