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Hi there! I'm Stephanie!
I'm a Brooklyn, NY native, mama to Joss (that little nugget squeezing my neck), and fur mama to our cat, Venom.
I'm also a hardcore early childhood (development) advocate. Meaning, I'm a full time protector of play, a soldier for social-emotional understanding, support, and wellbeing, and a challenger of traditional educational practices that have room for so much improvement - it keep me busy, but in the best possible way!
Along my journey, I began creating children's picture books as a way to show children that their everyday experiences and interests are seen and respected. My thought is, by making materials and moments more meaningful and relative to children, they're far more likely to want to engage with them, which keeps the momentum going! My hope for my books is that the content will resonate with little ones from all around the world, fostering a lifelong love for reading along the way.
Reviewed by Essien Asian for Readers' Favorite
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is never an easy task. There are so many emotions that come to the fore in a moment of vulnerability. It could be the stoic, silent approach to an event no one wants to face but the one common thing with all reactions is that this is just a part of the gradual process of acceptance and facing reality. This is what would be expected of an adult, young or old, but nobody has ever considered the ways little ones cope with death. Children are fragile creatures with delicate emotions that adults sometimes ignore in moments of grief. This is where Stephanie Seidler's When Someone You Love Has Died: Talking to Young Children About Death fills the gap, showing there is a way to teach children about coping with loss.
Stephanie Seidler uses a picture book with rhyming words to pass on a message with a deep meaning in an unbelievably simple manner. The questions that make up the bulk of the book have interesting answers that one can sing along to. The pictures are most expressive and I doubt whether any child would struggle to comprehend what they depict. What stands out for me has to be the way the book is arranged sequentially from the announcement of loss to the funeral process, especially the section where the child is encouraged to grieve in their unique way. Before now, the norm was to tell the child that the departed person took a trip but When Someone You Love Has Died tosses that archaic approach into the bin. To say I am impressed with this book is an understatement.
