Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 17, 2009
‘Little Birdie’ children’s book fills underserved need
Samara Litvack
When Sandy Foster Lee’s husband walked out on the family more than 20 years ago, her whole world fell apart. She was left with two sons, ages 10 and 13, and no good explanation. All she could do to work through the devastation was continue to be a loving mother, console her boys when they felt sad and teach them to find comfort through their faith.
“With the Lord’s help, we have gotten through,” she says.
Today, her sons have grown into two “wonderful young men,” and while they may never understand why their father left, the strength and guidance of their mother and their faith in God allowed them to live healthy, productive lives – and they are better for it.
Through the years, Lee says countless people have asked her how she survived such a traumatic experience.
“I have such a burden for little children,” she says. “Their whole perception of what a family is is changed forever. Their lives are changed forever, and they just kind of seem to be put in the background, like, ‘They’re kids so it doesn’t matter.’ Then I found a lot of them grow up to be angry adults because nothing was dealt with when they were young.”
Lee says for years she has used her personal story to comfort others in similar situations. Off and on, she has felt compelled to sit down and write, based on her family’s story. But, she says she was never much of a writer. So she’d write a bit and put it away. Then she’d pull it back out, write some more and put it back away.
Before long, Lee knew she was writing a children’s book, and felt God guiding her hand in the process. However, she wasn’t confident in her own ability to sit down and complete it.
“Then, like a year ago, it was just like the Lord said, ‘Either put it up and leave it alone or do something about it,’” she says. So she pulled it out, finished it and sent it off to Tate Publishing. Much to her surprise, she received a call back from the company soon after, expressing wishes to print the book.
The story, “A Little Birdie Told Me: About Divorce,” tells the tale of a young boy named Pete whose parents are divorcing. Pete wanders around his backyard crying, trying to figure out what he did to make his father leave, when he stumbles upon a little bluebird, Renny, who is also crying. Renny’s mother flew to another nest and he, too, is feeling at fault and all alone.
While the two discuss possibilities – Did I not clean my room well enough? Did I do something to make her angry? – a cardinal named Caleb flies up to ease their minds.
Caleb assures that neither one of them is at fault. Rather, adults sometimes just do things like this and it doesn’t have anything to do with the children. He also reminds them no matter how alone they feel, they never truly are because God is always with them.
“Pete, the little boy, says that he goes to Sunday school and the Renny, the bird, says he reads his bible,” says Lee.
“At the end, basically, when Caleb flies off, they feel better. They’re still sad, but they still feel better knowing that they’re never alone, that they’re going to be OK.”
Lee’s book – the first she has ever written – has just been released into bookstores and online, but she has already received remarkable response. For the past month, she has shared it with people she knew and members of her church, and she’s been taken aback by how it’s been received by people of all ages.
“One of the little boys said, ‘So God doesn’t sleep? He’s always listening to us when we pray?’” she says.
“I never thought about it but adults have said that it touched them because they had been through that themselves… It really has just been a blessing how it’s all worked out.”
Besides her own story, Lee was inspired greatly by the many people she spoke with over the years who had been affected by divorce. She mentions one in particular – a female in her 20s who remembers exactly what her father was wearing and what color his suitcase was when he left 15 years before.
“I really think our society has dropped the ball about little children, helping them cope with that,” says Lee. But through her book, she hopes she can help children and their families find comfort in the midst of this common, yet devastating situation.
“I feel like the Lord’s sending me on a journey and I told Him I’ll just be willing to do whatever,” she says. “If I can just make one child feel better about himself, it will have all been worth it.”
“A Little Birdie Told Me: About Divorce” is available online at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore, www.booksamillion.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.
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