The Brighter I Shine

Mama always tells me stories on my birthday. She tells me the story of how I arrived in this world. They say I first came to them in a quiet dream and that I was a gift from our ancestors.

For one Armenian child, birthdays are a time for decorating the house with bunches of rose and mint and sumac, for eating beef dumplings with garlic yoghurt, and for baking cakes with family and friends. But birthdays are also a time for telling stories – stories of ancestors and homelands, of births and new beginnings, and of the land their family now calls home. For stories make up who we are, and the more stories that are told, the brighter this little child shines.

A magical tale about finding yourself in the stories of your ancestors and keeping their memories alive.

“On her birthday, an Armenian child decorates her home with rose, mint and sumac, smells dumplings cooking, and remembers her ancestors’ journeys, taken “so that I could be born / very far from home / in a room full of their spirits”. A colourful, poignant picture book about treasuring the stories of those who came before.”

- The Guardian, Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

“An Armenian child of refugees muses on ancestral stories as vehicles of connection and identity in this moving picture book.” 

- Foreword Reviews, STARRED