Ser Bk Lady Rose

I grew up with these books in the early eighties and, yes I also fell in love with "Morgan Morning", the story of what happens to a colt when he disobey's his mother and is prevented from ever seeing her again. That book is critisized by some as being "too much" for sensitive children. As a sensitive child, I loved that book. I wore out the tape that came with it playing and replaying the Morgan Morning story. Obviously, parents should be aware of the story line and their child before putting them together. Now, why do I mention all that? Because this book, "Lady Rose", is the other side of that story. Morgan had to learn to live with a choice that separated him from his mother which could be considered a metaphor for the child making a decision that could end their lives(drugs, violence, drifting, etc). Lady Rose is about when someone has to goes away, and those left behind don't agree with the reasons or understand why but it does not change the fact they are gone. I have no memory of ever reading this book as a small child.... ....But when I was 23 yrs old, and going through stacks of books at my father's house I came upon this one. It looked like it had never been read. I read the story, and I cried my eyes out like I hadn't since my mother had passed away a year before. I was grown, but I still missed my mother and this book helped me see a light at the end of that tunnel. I think one interpretation of this book would be to help children who have lost someone close to them and they don't understand why or they feel betrayed somehow or cheated because of the loss. I found it to be a much gentler and poetic fable about loss then some other books that are specifically written to help people deal with the loss of a loved one.

Fans of the Serendipity series will want to add this one to the collection, but it is not the eye-catcher that some of the others are (Shimmeree, Misty Morgan, etc.). A young otter seeks to find the answer to her question but is faced with a personal and social dilemma upon the discovery of the answer. The story is a good way to teach children to keep in touch with lost friends, and the illustrations are consistently beautiful, but I would more highly recommend some of the earlier Serendipity books.