Love Runs Through Everything: Picture Books About Loss and Finding Your Place

In this powerful episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes two picture book creators whose work helps families navigate some of life’s hardest—and most beautiful—truths.

First, Shannon Gibney joins from Minnesota to talk about her picture book “Where Is My Sister?”, inspired by the stillbirth of her daughter. Shannon shares the shattering experience of losing a baby late in pregnancy and the long emotional healing that followed. As a writer, she went searching for honest, non‑sugar‑coated books about infant loss and found almost nothing, especially for families who aren’t all of one faith tradition. That gap led her to co‑edit a collection of memoirs by women of color and Native women about infant loss and miscarriage, and eventually to write Where Is My Sister?—told from the perspective of a young girl whose baby sister dies before coming home. Shannon and Jed discuss our culture’s discomfort with grief, how adults can be present for children without trying to “fix” the pain, and why including differing beliefs about death within one family matters.

Then Nazneen Akbari joins from Delhi to introduce her debut picture book “Home Away From Home.” The story follows an American Omani girl visiting her grandmother and feeling out of place—until a walk through a historic Omani market helps her see that this culture, too, is part of who she is. Drawing on her own life across India, Oman, Dubai, and the U.S., Nazneen talks about identity, the “Where are you from?” question, and why we need joyful, authentic stories from the Middle East to counter stereotypes and remind kids that we all belong to one human family.