Olive and Babyland

When five-year-old Olive learns that Samantha’s grandmother has died, she goes to her daddy and asks what dying is. In order to answer her question, Olive’s daddy tells her a tale from when he was a little boy about a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. The story of what happens next helps Olive understand that death is about love.

This children’s story seeks in a loving, ecumenical, and sensitive way to help children understand what death is.

“March Bracken has, again, articulated death in a manner that is light and natural. Discussions of death can be just as difficult with adults as with children. This story breathes its ‘love light’ onto a topic we find so challenging to approach. … I can absolutely see how this soft tale of a child and her father could positively impact those dealing with stages of dementia. The story is refreshing, brief and honest.”

—Tricia James, LCSW, hospice social worker

“In Olive and Babyland, March Bracken has written a tender and evocative tale of death and rebirth for children and their adults, a tale that explains death in gentle words and images that speak in ‘love light.’”

—Bertha Rogers, poet, master teaching artist, founding director of Bright Hill Press and Literary Center