All of us will have to do life without our parents at some point. Alison Garwood-Jones has written and illustrated a picture book for adults to show what the aftermath looks like. Released on May 10, 2024 – in time for Mother’s Day – I Miss My Mommy takes you right to the heart of the five stages of grief through 150 portraits, some grim, some funny, but all relatable. The stage you’re in may change by the hour, or even the minute. This book helps readers struggling with grief sit with emotions they’d rather avoid but can’t stop feeling. Dip inside to find yourself, or someone you love but don’t quite understand. Better still, present the book to someone who’s missing their mom on Mother’s Day. I MISS MY MOMMY is the world’s first picture book for big people without parents. - Book website: https://PenJarProductions.com
These stirring vignettes represent a wide range of relationships, with some warm and heartfelt while others are gut-wrenchingly raw. In “The Wounded” section, “Gerald’s body language still holds on to his mother’s constant criticism,” while dancer Sadie tries to escape the “crippling waves” of her parents’ words and actions. “The Nostalgic” sees Pete reluctant to discard his father’s old shoes—as “proof he was on this earth”—and Alison relistening to her mother’s voice mails to recall the sound. Garwood-Jones herself is no stranger to sorrow, with this book being her way of working through the pain of losing both parents. “I saw grief up close,” she writes, “It was intense. I had to look away. But it kept staring back at me, so I offered it my hand.”
The illustrations are sketched in varying shades of purple, evoking energy, sadness, and intensity across nearly every page as they capture a fragment of time in someone’s life—a woman looking over her shoulder to see the memory of her dead father haunting her, or the moment a man, overcome with grief, rests his head in his hands. These sparse snapshots, paired with the poignant and touching text, will comfort readers wrestling with their own burden of loss.
Takeaway: Stirring resource for adults wrestling with the grief of losing their parents.
Comparable Titles: Alessandra Olanow’s Hello Grief, Megan Devine’s How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Readers see the many faces of adult orphan grief in Garwood-Jones’ adult picture book.The five stages of grief, as conceptualized by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, get an expansive remix, complete with renderings ofsubjects in the throes of various distilled moments of coping mechanism flux. In this cleverly conceived book, faithfullynuanced caricatures, or stagers (a term taken from Shakespearean theater protocol and a play on Kübler-Ross’s stages),mirror the ways grief manifests in our actions across forty-one chapters with titles that are sometimes familiar (“The ShellShocked,” “The Pity Partiers,” “The Addicted”) and other times unexpected (“The Dog Moms,” “The Closeted,” “TheNarcissists”). Over a dozen stand-alone quotes on grief by noted people are interspersed between, as well. Aneggplant-purple color scheme is used purposefully to unify the sweeping range of emotions between disparate poles ofintensity, associated with red, and calm, associated with blue. To “capture how we are coping, moment to moment, yearafter year, after a big loss” is the author’s mission statement, and for the most part it is easy to draw a connection betweenthe coping mechanism attributed to the various stagers. In some chapters, however, the correlation between the subjectas portrayed in the accompanying text and the person’s stage of grief is tenuous. A chapter entitled “The Dicks,” forinstance, includes a portrait of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and two other men, all espousing questionable ideologies.They may well be orphaned adults, but their personalities can’t be boiled down to a reaction to grief. Midway through, aquote by writer and actor Amy Sedaris, “Assume everyone is grieving,” reorients readers in light of such less apparentexamples of how an adult orphan might be grappling with loss. Finding oneself, family, friends, or others within thesepages makes it a perfectly contemplative coping tool.A unique book with more than a few profound philosophical moments that evoke peace and foster emotional healing.
The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies interviewed Garwood-Jones about her marketing strategy for her new book, I Miss My Mommy: 150 Portraits of Orphaned Adults. The interview appeared on the university's blog, CuriousU.
TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a provincial current affairs program, did a 15-minute profile of author Alison Garwood-Jones and her new book, I Miss My Mommy: 150 Portraits of Orphaned Adults. Timed for Mother's Day.
TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a provincial current affairs program, did a 15-minute profile of author Alison Garwood-Jones and her new book, I Miss My Mommy: 150 Portraits of Orphaned Adults. Timed for Mother's Day.
Award-winning writer and columnist Anne Bokma prominently featured Alison Garwood-Jones' new book, I Miss My Mommy, in her Mother's Day column for The Hamilton Spectator. Coverage included a cover image and author photo, plus an interview with quotes on what orphaned adult grief is like on Mother's Day.
