The line drawings in this simple but highly effective picture book say it all in the most artless way. The stick figure child tells us that he or she sometimes feels sad because of having lost something or because of physical hurt. But often the sadness just comes for seemingly no reason. Being with friends can help, but not necessarily; doing a fun activity can help, but not always; being alone can help - or make things worse. There seem to be no easy answers, even when one tries to tell people what is going on. Sometimes they don't listen, or don't believe the child, and the child worries that they will think ill of him or her, or perhaps they will become sad too. The only answer is to talk, but when he or she tries, some people just say 'cheer up' or not to think about it, and it is only when after several tries the child finds someone who does listen and understands that he or she is able to describe the feeling. The grandparent figure explains that everyone feels sad sometimes and that this is okay, and he/she begins to feel better 'because it means I'm not alone'. The simple pictures are so expressive, so telling of what is going on in the child's mind that the book becomes a model of information and a story at the same time. A wonderful and brilliant evocation of what it feels like to be sad and to discover that it is one of life's inevitabilities. Available from Amazon, from good book shops, and from the publisher: www.jkp.com.