Book Review for Lily Hates Goodbye by Jerilyn Marler to All My Military Friends

Lily Hates Goodbye by Jerilyn Marler

CreateSpace
March 8, 2011
146096070X
978-146960707
32 Pages
Ages 4–8
Children’s Military Picture Book

Reviewer: Renee Hand



Lily Hates Goodbyes is an ideal book in helping children deal with the feelings that exist when having a parent who deploys into the military for long periods of time.


Lily Hates Goodbyes is about a child named Lily who has a father in the military. It feels to her that he’s gone for a billion days, though in reality he’s really not. Her daddy says that when she looks at the moon, he’s looking at it too, thinking about her. Her mother says that daddy can hear everything Lily says to the moon, so she talks to the moon and blows it a kiss.

Sometimes, Lily gets angry about her daddy’s long absence, but mother says that it’s okay to feel angry, and sometimes she feels angry too. Lily draws many pictures of what is going on around her and places them into a box so her daddy can look at them when he returns home.

She puts stickers on a calendar to remind her of her daddy’s return, finding ways to cope. She receives a letter in the mail, which excites her, from her daddy. Her mother reads it to her and she puts it away to read for later.

Lily goes through a series of emotions. She also feels stubborn and mean when her daddy’s gone. But her mother says that it’s okay to feel that way and that sometimes she feels that way too. So, Lily will play with the things that make her happy because she knows that it will please her daddy. He wouldn’t want her to be mean or stubborn. He wants her to be happy.

Lily finds various ways to cope that will help her until her daddy returns and makes everything in her life seem right again. Will she be able to hold it together with the help of her wise mother?

This 32-page picture book allows children to express their feelings about a parent being absent from home. Sometimes an adult cannot see the impact they have on a child with the actions they do, until their child lashes out. Men and women in the military is something that we appreciate greatly for it protects our freedoms, but we sometimes don’t see the impacts it has on their own families.

Lily Hates Goodbyes, gives parents a tool to help their children cope with their absence, and reinstates that though they are away, their children are never far from their minds and that they will come home to them. They are never forgotten.

This book also includes suggestions on how to use the book to get the best out of it for each parent’s situation.