"When a family member dies, often the response of children is overlooked or underestimated. This very important book makes tangible the range of emotions felt but not completely understood by children for the loss of a parent or sibling. It offers welcome channels of response that can help survivors to not only understand their feelings but also come to grips with the loss and get on positively with their lives. Barbara Snook offers insights into a range of peoples experiences with the loss of a family member. It normalizes the variety of experiences of grieving, that it is not a linear process, not something to get over, rather the impacts are lifelong and require developing ways to live with the grief." Pauline Brown, registered psychologist. "This book is like a cocoon. It is beautiful from start to finish. The growth and transformation about such grief is anticipated and transparent yet mesmerising through its entire unfolding. It holds the reader, in the same way that siblings who have lost (and actually anyone who has lost a loved one) need to be held and need to be seen, as they transit their own unique process." Jenni van der Schoot, psychotherapist. "I recognise myself in the pages written by the brave contributors to this book, as will other readers who struggle with the complex and conflicting emotions of losing a loved sibling. Realising that others also struggle with grief and have feelings of guilt is a repeated thread in the stories that weave readers together, giving them the realisation that they are not the odd one out, but that their reactions are normal in a heart-rending situation." Tilly Brasch, author of No Middle Name"
Dr Barbara Snook is a Professional Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Auckland in the Dance Studies program. She taught dance in Brisbane High Schools for 20 years and was the Caroline Plummer Fellow in Community Dance at the University of Otago during 2008. Barbara received an Osmotherley Award in 2007 for her services toward the development of dance in Queensland and she was nominated for an Australian Dance Award for services to dance education in 2006. Her textbooks, Dance... Count Me In and Dance for Senior Students are used throughout schools in Australia and New Zealand. She has also written Dance Room Book One and Dance Room Book Two for children in the first years of school. Barbara writes academic articles for publication in international academic journals and is currently working on a research project that involves arts integration in primary schools. Barbara enjoys participating in Authentic Movement sessions and dancing/acting in television commercials. Her great loves are her grandchildren who live in Perth, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. She is constantly planning holiday time with them.
