Held in Love
Dawn Casey and Oamal Lu
Lincoln Children’s Books

If you’re looking for a book to give as a gift to a new mother and child, or at a naming ceremony, here’s one that fits the bill perfectly. Equally it could serve as a bedtime lullaby.

Billed as ‘A mother’s blessing’, Dawn Casey has penned a softly spoken, lilting entreaty that any parent (or grandparent) could share with an infant.

Herein we have a mother talking to her baby.

Beginning with the universe and thence the galaxy and the world, each double spread moves inwards to a home wherein a mother, child nestling in her arms is reading.
She asks for joyfulness in movement, generosity, gratefulness, musicality with ears that can hear both song and silence,

playfulness and the ability to forgive and forget.

Finally we’re taken full circle to the universal with these heartfelt words: ‘May your eyes look to the stars and know that you are held in the arms of the universe … and held in love.’

Complementing the beautiful, soulful words are debut picture book illustrator Oamul Lu’s warm-hearted scenes of maternal love, of a growing child and of serene natural landscapes. I just wish he hadn’t used those googly eyes that seem to be used in so many picture books at present.