The Perfect Shelter, written by Claire Helen Welsh and illustrated by Åsa Gilland.

Two sisters love to build shelters in the woods until one of them becomes seriously ill.

One perfect day, the two sisters, one with light hair and the other with dark, enjoy playing outside and decided to build a shelter of their own in the woods. They gather sticks and stack them high and soon had made a place of their own where they could be together. One day, however, the dark haired sister felt too tired to play and during that night a wild wind blew their shelter down. The next morning both sisters felt fine so they rebuilt the shelter. Soon, though, things changed. The sick sister often was at the doctor’s office. Not long after that, she was in the hospital because she needed an operation. The sister who had to stay at home was sad and so worried about her sister that she couldn’t sing or work and lost interest in building another shelter.

Welsh’s gentle text tackles a complicated emotional situation and deals with it in a gentle way.

Gilland’s child-friendly illustrations add to this story about an interracial family dealing with one of every parents’ worst nightmare, the serious illness of a child.

Highly recommended for any home, school or public library’s collection to help children face their fears of having to go to a hospital.