Beautiful story about loss and grief. The story is about Eric, the animal on the front cover, who likes the sea, plays in the sea, where he is happy. One day, the sea does not come back after the tide. Eric then becomes very sad. The story then moves towards explaining all his feelings and explores next steps after experiencing loss.

From feelings of Winter, helplessness, to feelings of hope and collaboration, this story is particularly poignant and resonates to particular feelings of loss. Finding ways to keep memories of a person alive and celebrating the person’s life become important themes in this story. Social connections and support is also explored as part of the healing process.

The metaphors used in this story are strong and easy to make connections with. I thought the feelings of Winter were particularly strong and well written.

A beautifully written story that came to reach me, particularly as I remember the loss of a very important person this week…

Sunderland, M. (2003). The Day the Sea Went Out and Never Back. Speechmark: London.