Thea the Tūī loves to sing from her nest in a pohutakawa tree. Brite the Dizzy Waggle loves to listen to her, and hangs out under Thea’s tree most days.

But one morning Thea can’t sing. She tells Brite she doesn’t feel well, and maybe she’ll feel like singing the next day. Again, when Brite returns to her friend’s tree, there is still no  Tūī song in the air. Brite becomes worried and confused. What’s wrong with Thea?

When Thea tells Brite she is sick, Brite is full of sadness. Especially when Thea gently tells Brite she might not get better.

“Even if my body

is no longer here,

you’ll feel me around

and know my soul’s there.”

Brite doesn’t understand, just wanting things to be how they once were. Thea soothes Brite some more, but as she’d tried to warn Brite – she is missing from the tree the next day. Brite is full of feelings at losing her friend. Sad, mad and lonely too.

Many tears are shed before she begins to remember the fun times together, and then all the signs that Thea is still near. A feather, a star, and Thea’s pohutakawa tree in full bloom again.

Part of a rhyming picture book series – ‘Teaching Emotional Intelligence and Resilience Through Storytelling,’ this book is a gentle tale about loss and grief.

Through a cute Dizzy Waggle and one of New Zealand’s most well known and much loved native birds (a Tūī), grief is portrayed in a way young children will be able to grasp, especially when dealing with their own loss.

They can be flooded with a stream of emotions, often on top of each other, and Thea and the Dizzy Waggle might just be able help them understand.

Exercises for children in the rear of the book explore these topics further.

Author – Cloe Willetts

Illustrator – Fabienne Joni Sopacua

Picture Book