The Great Big Sad: Available Now

The Great Big Sad: Finding Comfort in Grief and Loss is now available. This book is the third in the series of children’s books that follow siblings Josh and Mia as they experience hard things in life. We first met them in Tell God How You Feel where they learned to lament to the Lord all their big feelings. In The Great Big Sad, we find them experiencing the death of their grandmother. Each sibling experiences and responds to grief in a different way and the adults in their life help them as they journey through it. They learn to find comfort in the fact that Jesus experienced grief too.

This story is intended for parents and caregivers to read with their children as they seek to disciple them through loss. It includes a letter to parents with suggestions on helping children who have experienced the death of a loved one. There are also discussion questions for families to use at the end of the story.

My hope for the book is that is helps parents walk alongside grieving children. I pray that it equips parents to talk about this difficult topic and helps them point their children to their comfort and hope found in Jesus Christ.

Here are what some readers have said about the book:

I’d love to know what you think of the book and your experience of reading it to your children!

Join the Launch Team for The Great Big Sad

The Great Big Sad releases soon and I’d love for you to join the launch team! What’s a launch team, you ask? It’s a team of people who get to read the book before anyone else and then spread the word about the book.

How do you join the team?

1. Register to join the team here. Once registered, you’ll receive a digital copy of the book in your email as well as images you can share on social media. The first fifty people who participate in launch team duties receive a free hard copy of the book once it releases.

2. In addition, you can participate in the launch team’s Facebook group. Meet other readers and talk about the book together. I will be participating as well and look forward to interacting with you about the book. To join that group, click here.

Coming Soon: The Great Big Sad

Grief and loss. It’s a reality we all experience at some point in our lives. It’s something we don’t think about until it happens. Perhaps you remember the first person of significance in your life who died, how you felt, how you grieved. Grief always hits us in ways we could not have anticipated. It is painful. It’s multi-layered. It’s often complicated. It comes in waves. And it never really goes away.

What makes grief all that more challenging is when we need to help our children navigate their own grief. How do we walk alongside our children as they face the loss of someone they loved and cherished? How do we help them when we are caught up in our own grief? How do we point them to Christ in the midst of such sorrow?

My third book in the series of books about siblings, Josh and Mia, releases soon. You may have read Tell God How You Feel or God Hears Your Heart—both books are directed at helping children learn to bring their emotions to the Lord. The Great Big Sad follows Josh and Mia as they hear the hard news that a beloved relative has died. We see them respond to the news in their own way. Throughout the book, they learn ways to express their grief, to talk about it with others, and even ways to honor their loved one’s memory. They also find comfort and hope in the gospel and the promise of the resurrection.

The book includes a letter to parents, helping parents with practical tips in coming alongside their children as they grieve. There are also discussion questions to use with children to talk about what they learned from the story. While The Great Big Sad is the story about a hard and painful loss, it’s also a hope-filled book, one that points children to Jesus.

The Great Big Sad is available for pre-order now. Sign ups for a launch team will be up soon. Stay tuned to The Great Big Sad landing page here on the blog for a link to sign up. Launch team members will receive early access to the book and help spread the word about its release. I hope you will join us!