We are delighted to announce our partnership with Scottish Book Trust and Book Trust who have helped us to be able to include My Little Star; a picture book by Mark Sperring (Author) and Nicola O’Byrne (Illustrator) in every SiMBA Memory Box that is gifted to a family after the loss of a baby.
"I’m so touched that ‘My Little Star’ was picked by SiMBA. The book was written as a testimony of parental love, and for it to be included in the charity’s Memory Boxes feels both humbling and fitting" – Mark Sperring
Since our inception in 2005, we have sent more than 23,000 Memory Boxes to more than 300 Hospital Units across the UK and Ireland. Sadly, our services are needed so we want to make sure that our Memory Boxes are as lovely as possible; giving parents time, permission and the opportunity to make precious memories with their baby.
My Little Star is a new addition to our Medium and Large Memory Boxes after taking on board feedback from parents who said that the only thing that’s missing is a book.
We’ve worked with Scottish Book Trust, Book Trust and a group of bereaved parents to select this book which can be used in any way that provides comfort to the family. It comes with a special message on the back which offers suggestions on how to use it and a sentence that says: “This book was selected by a group of parents who have experienced the loss of a baby. SiMBA is grateful to the parents involved in the selection of this book.”
Scottish Book Trust is a national charity that believes books, reading and writing have the power to change lives.
BookTrust is dedicated to getting children reading; a children’s charity working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each year Book Trust reach 3.9 million children across the UK with books, resources and support.
The selection process started earlier this year with a number of books being presented to Sara Fitzsimmons MBE, SiMBA CEO, and two bereaved parents at a meeting at at Scottish Book Trust. The selection was narrowed down to 5 books which were then narrowed down to ‘My Little Star’ after further consultation with a larger group of bereaved parents. Feedback about the book included:
- “beautiful and moving”
- “love how simple this book is and illustrations are beautiful”
- “can’t go wrong with animals and stars”
- “love this book, very colourful too”
- “love the title, lovely illustrations, such an appropriate story, simple story but beautiful, my favourite”
- “lovely words, made me feel emotional reading it, just what you need, expresses how much the little ones means to you”
- “like the parent & child feel, small animals can represent lost baby and other siblings looking at the stars”
- “I love the simplicity of this, really sweet!”
- “perfect!”
- “I really like this book – tender message about parent/child represented”
Bloomsbury, the Publisher, also kindly took on board the parents’ wishes to add ‘This book belongs to…………….’ in the front cover so that the baby’s name (or person book belongs to e.g., sibling, parent etc.) could be added to the book and kept in the Memory Box.
To celebrate our new partnership and My Little Star going into our Memory Boxes, we have organised a very special event “My Little Star: A Conversation on the Power of Reading & Memory Making with Babies after Loss” on Wednesday 20th November from 6 – 8:30pm at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. More details and booking form can be found on our events page here: https://www.simbacharity.org.uk/support/awareness-events/simba-book-week-scotland-event/
We would love if you could join us for this event during Book Week Scotland; a celebration of books and reading that is taking place across Scotland from 18 – 24 November. The theme of this year’s Book Week Scotland is ‘conversation’ so by doing this event we want to start a very important conversation on baby loss and how reading can help.
We will continue to build our partnership with both Scottish Book Trust and Book Trust in order to signpost bereaved parents and their extended families towards books that support grief recovery, mental and emotional health.
We are extremely excited about this new partnership and look forward to continuing to work together on this important topic.