Lasting Love by Caroline Wright
Illustrations by Willow Heath
Random House Children’s Books, released August 2019
Reviewed by Pamela Krueger
In Lasting Love, by Caroline Wright, a child facing the loss of his mother is led through an imaginative process of finding her lasting love in the form of a strong, magical, and loving creature. This creature appears when his mother becomes sick and becomes a constant reminder of his mother’s love for him, even after she slips away. This beautifully illustrated children’s book treats the subject of anticipatory grief and loss with loving care, as the reader witnesses the many ways the mother and child are connected. The essence of the mother’s love is transferred into the magical creature, who continues to watch over her son. This book offers terminally ill parents a developmentally sensitive way to connect with their children’s imagination as a bridge to connecting to their feelings of the fear of loss of the parent.