Read this when
The Heart and the Bottle
Put your heart in a bottle to keep it safe? Cool. Just know the stars stop working too. 🫙
Who it's for
The book turns emotional numbing into a single concrete image: a heart put in a bottle 'just for the time being' and worn around the neck.
Numb→Hopeful
Feelings it meets
What it is
Oliver Jeffers's picture book, written and illustrated by him, is about a girl full of wonder at the world who shares her curiosity with an older man. After he is gone, she puts her heart in a bottle to keep it safe and grows up emotionally closed off, until a younger, curious child helps her reconnect with her feelings and the world.
Where to find it
In print and in libraries (Libby/Hoopla often carry it). Read-aloud videos and audio versions are widely available.
Before you start
Heads up: Implied death of a loved adult.
Age: All ages
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Joy and Sorrow”
