Gilbert’s Cake is the story
of our story …
Readers often wonder where story ideas come from. They come from many places, but rarely from as deep a place as Gilbert’s Cake.
As author Emily Mir explains, ‘Our first baby, Gilbert, was stillborn in 2010. Two years later, we welcomed Gilbert’s twin siblings. As young children, the twins wanted a party, complete with balloons and a cake, to mark Gilbert’s birthday. It was painful at first, but an annual tradition began. Gilbert’s Cake is the story of our story.’
After working with families who have experienced miscarriage and stillbirth, Emily was inspired to share her family’s story of love, loss . . . and pelicans.
Emily is both a counsellor and a bereaved mother, and hopes her story sparks joy and love as well as evoking holistic ways of healing in the face of loss and trauma.
Here is KBR’s Elizabeth Vercoe’s touching review to further entice:
This book is exquisite.
A celebration of life, death, love, small people and family that will leave you feeling lighter, yet somehow changed.
Illustrations that sing, dance and surprise; words that leap off the page to delight and to beckon. Brilliant use of texture, colour, motif and tone, so that even the endpapers are laden with significance and joy.
All the feels. Goosebumps on your goosebumps material.
Absolutely recommended.
