The ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings is Here!

Me holding my copy of The ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings over my original illustrations for the book

Happy March my Beautiful Butterflies!

I hope your cups are as full as they can be right now, and if they aren't that is okay too. My February was a bit of a wild ride of emotions, but it ended on a meanigful note. Nestled cozily in my mailbox was my printed copy of The ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings by Jessica Correnti. If you are new here, I illustrated the first and second book of this series geared toward helping little ones (and big ones alike) understand grief and navigate their emotions and feelings. I am soooo excited to share the second book with you. Seeing my illustrations paired with Jessica's insightful words is such a meaningful moment for me, and I know its going to help so many little ones on their grieving and healing journeys.

While the first book is a broad view of what grief is and all of its misconceptions, the second book dives deep into all of the emotions and feelings that you can have while grieving ranging from sadness to joy to anger to relief and the list goes on. Jessica tasked me with creating the illustrations to each letter of the alphabet, and as a lovely little dive into the book I gathered a sneak peek of three of my favorite pages below.

Three Emotions and Feelings Explored

Edgy: "E is for Edgy...At times I feel nervous and afraid that more difficult things will happen." - Jessica Correnti

Boy did I feel this one! When something bad happens my brain spirals, waiting for more bad to happen. In approaching this illustration I immediately imagined fear and scary thoughts following me around like my shadow. I illustrated this feeling once before, but it really felt like it belonged on this page.

The book opened to the page "E is for Edgy" over top the original illustration.

Guarded: "G is for Guarded...I hold my feelings close to my heart. I am unsure if I am ready to share what is on my mind with the world." - Jessica Correnti

This one hit hard for me too. It's easy to feel protective over our emotions, especially when we don't quite understand what they are. I have a tendency to guard my feelings tightly until I've processed and reflected upon them. For this illustration I had a few different ideas, but this one I kept coming back to: Warriors standing guard to the entrance to a castle door. I wanted to bring the heart idea into the fold, so I illustrated it carved into the door like a fortress.

The book opened to the page "G is for Guarded" with the original illustration in the background.

Loving: "L is for Loving...I feel so much love through my pain. Love can travel through time and space. My love can even reach the sky." - Jessica Correnti

This may be one of my favorite pages of the book, and the perfect example of how we can feel two opposite things at once: sadness and joy, fear and love, and so on. It's hard for me to process and accept that it's okay to feel love and joy when I'm sad. It feels like I'm dismissing the grief I'm feeling, but in reality we grieve because something mattered to us. And isn't it a wonderful thing to have cared and loved something that much!

For this illustration, my space series came to mind, but with a twist: A shooting heart! I imagined my heart zooming through the night sky and I imagined taking a rocket to the stars and grabbing hold of the shooting heart!

The book opened to page "L is for Loving" with the original illustration on the desk behind it.

This book was very impactful for me. While illustrating this book my mom started her chemo treatment and stem cell transplant. Simultaneously I was navigating my first year as a new mom. I was experiencing incredible highs and incredible lows, sometimes all in the same day. But every time I sat down to work on this book I found myself immersed in a bit of therapy. Not only is drawing and painting such a helpful tool in and of itself for my mental health, but thinking through Jessica's words on grief was so beneficial for me to understand what I was feeling.

A smattering of the original illustrations for the book The ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings

I truly hope you all enjoy the second book as much as I do. I'm so proud of my illustrations and I hope it helps all the little and big grievers in the world.

You can buy your own copy here.

Until next time, Rachel

Me holding the new book The ABCs of Grief: Emotions and Feelings by Jessica Correnti