Sharon Rentta Illustration
This Letter Says I Love You
Written by Lucy Rowlands and illustrated by Sharon Rentta
This is such a special picture book about missing and remembering loved ones... celebrating their memory and staying connected. Lucy's text is beautiful... emotional and heartfelt, but also uplifting and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to illustrate it. It is perfect for any child who has lost someone close to them and what makes it even more special is that it is based on a true story... Mathilda Handy was very close to her grandma and missed her greatly when she passed on. Then she had an idea of creating a special postbox for people to send letters to loved ones, expressing the things they wished they could say.
The first of these special white postboxes was set up in Gedling Crematorium and now there are more than 40 across the country. Both children and adults can now post letters to their loved ones in one of these special postboxes as a way to help process their loss.
'This Letter Says I Love You' has also been selected, along with 24 other titles in 2026, to be a part of the Books That Help book bundle in conjunction with Reading Rocks. Books That Help was set up by Clare Helen Welsh to help children and families, dealing with difficult life issues, to have access to valuable resources. These carefully designed resources will help support children's wellbeing and are available from their website.
