Every night as part of JoJo's bedtime routine, we would read her a book or two. She loves listening to stories and looking at the illustrations on the books. Tonight I helped her choose two books which we borrowed from the library recently. The first book we read together is called 'Milly, Molly and Jimmy's seeds'. Since we've watched a few episodes of 'Milly, Molly' on TV, I thought it would be nice to read the books.

The story was a surprise to me. In fact it moved me to tears. It was about a little boy Jimmy who was Milly and Molly's classmate. He loved gardening and often has seeds in his pockets for him to plant later. But, one day, Jimmy fell ill and died in the hospital. It was very moving how the teacher and children came together to grief for Jimmy. After many weeks, Jimmy's desk was to be removed from the classroom. Milly and Molly cleared out his desk for him so that they could pass his belongings to Jimmy's Mom. They found some seeds and asked Jimmy's Mom whether they could plant it in the school garden. After the Mom consented, Milly and Molly planted it and waited for the seed to grow. Much to their surprise, the seed grew into a beautiful sunflower. It gave the children joy as the sunflower reminded them that Jimmy is in a way still among them.

JoJo immediately picked up my emotional cue and she too started to sniff and felt really sad. We gave each other tight hugs after that story. It was hard to explain what it means to lose a person you care about to a three year old. But, the author is a stroke of genius and has managed to teach young children how to cope with grief which is a real part of life.

Our second book was a lot more fun and it was about a lonely bear and a lonely boy who became unexpected friends. We had fun pretending to be the bear and the little boy while reading the story.