Dorset author Debra-Anne Thompson has published two of four Golden Magical Ribbon books, for children aged 6 to 9 with loved ones living far away.
A Dorset-based children’s author has published the first two books in a four-part series for children aged six to nine who have someone they love living a long way away.
Debra-Anne Thompson’s series is called The Golden Magical Ribbon. Book one, The Golden Magical Ribbon: Across the Sea, and book two, Across the Sky, are out now through Amazon and international book distribution, she says. Two more are to follow.
The idea came from her own family. “The series was inspired by my own family’s experience of living between the UK and South Africa and knowing first-hand what it feels like when the people you love are thousands of miles away,” she told The Dorset Post.
Seventeen years apart from her children
On the series website, Debra-Anne says she was born in Zimbabwe, raised in Cape Town and now lives in England. She writes there that she left Cape Town for England seventeen years ago “believing my children would soon follow. When life changed unexpectedly, we found ourselves living thousands of miles apart.”
“As a mom, I wanted my children to know that distance could never change how deeply they were loved,” she writes. “Even when I couldn’t be there to hug them, that love was still there, stretching across the miles and connecting us.”
Years later, she says, that feeling became the idea for the books: “a beautiful golden ribbon that could travel anywhere, connecting children to the people who love them.”
What the first book is about
Across the Sea follows two children, Rex and Lily, and their family as they adjust to being split across different cities and countries.
“The golden ribbon becomes a gentle way of showing children that distance can change where people are, but it does not change the love, memories, care and sense of belonging that connect them,” Debra-Anne says.
In the book, the author’s website says, the children’s mother tells them the secret of the ribbon: “an invisible connection that stretches across seas, skies and any distance between them.”
In the second book, Across the Sky, “as life brings new changes and challenges, Rex and Lily discover that love, courage and hope can carry them through even the most uncertain moments,” according to the books page.
Who the books are for
Debra-Anne wrote the series for “children who may have parents, grandparents, siblings or other loved ones living far away because of migration, relocation, separated households or simply because families are often spread across the world.”
“What started as a very personal family experience has grown into something I hope can help other children feel understood and reassured,” she says.
What comes next
The two remaining books are listed on the website as Together At Last, in which “a long-awaited reunion brings Rex and Lily closer to the people they love”, and Finding Home. Both are marked “Available to Buy Soon”.
Four activity books are also listed as coming soon: adventure activity books for Rex and for Lily, and two wellbeing books, My Golden Ribbon Calm Activity Book and My Golden Ribbon Courage Activity Book. The site also carries free printables for parents and teachers.
What it means for you
If your child has a parent, grandparent or sibling living in another town or another country, these are books written with exactly that in mind, by someone who lived it. Books one and two can be ordered through Amazon, and the Golden Magical Ribbon Series website lists all four titles and the activity books as they arrive.
Schools, libraries and bookshops can reach Debra-Anne through the contact page on the series website.
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