Mummy Wears Blue Shoes by Scott Furlong and Emma Cahill (Children's, 5 years +, 8/10E)

 

15th September 2020, Clink Street Publishing, 54 pages, Paperback, Review copy

Book Summary

Emily is five-years-old. She wears pink ballerina shoes and wants to be a ballerina when she grows up.

Emily’s mummy and daddy are both special police officers called detectives. Lately, Emily has noticed that her mummy hasn’t been spending time with her. She has stopped taking her to dancing lessons and her older brother, Jackson, to his rugby lessons. One night, Emily sees her mummy crying on the sofa being comforted by her daddy. At a family meeting Emily learns that her mummy is poorly with something that the doctor calls Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Mummy Wears Blue Shoes is a heart-warming story about a family who are living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is a story written about a family, for families by a family, by author Scott Furlong with illustrated by his cousin Emma Cahill. 

 

Nayu's thoughts

Emily is such a sweet little girl. She adores her special sparkly pink shoes, looks ridiculously adorable in the cute illustrations, and wears them as much as possible because they make her feel happy. Her happiness leaps off the page, her shoes always sparkle, her brother's shoes always have stink waves coming off them, and unfortunately Emily's mother is not always smiling. Despite her young age Emily knows something isn't right. The way her mother is depicted in the pictures and prose portrays what can happen with PTSD and also depression really well.

 

 It didn't happen all at once, there are clear signs that something is amiss, and it felt that the situation was explained clearly in an age appropriate way to Emily. She takes what she hears on board, tries to be extra nice to her mother, and then does something quite remarkable. Just what she does I won't say anything, but I was a little frustrated not to see her mother's reaction after Emily presents her gift to help her mum be happier. The end felt too abrupt for the story, and while I can imagine various scenarios, I'd really wanted to see what would happen and how the family would support Emily's mother.

Reviewed for the recent blog tour.