The Heart on Your Hand
by Lucy Rowland, illustrated by Åsa Gilland
Interest age: 3 to 7
Published by Macmillan Children's Books, 2026
About this book
'New can feel quite different, but different can be good..' On the pages of this beautiful picture book, different families navigate changes, such as going to school, being away from parents, or moving house. And the words remind the children that a heart drawn on each of their hands can be a reminder of the love between the adults and children.
This gentle, rhyming text is reassuring and hopeful. When read aloud, it is a message directly to the child, which makes it ideal to read with a loved one. It would be ideal to read with a child before they start school or go through a big change, but it's also applicable to the everyday. Visually, this is gloriously colourful and detailed, depicting a variety of family situation, including a single parent, two fathers and a mixed-race family. Heartwarming and inclusive, this is an uplifting book to snuggle up with.
About the author
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