Two new illustrated poetry books covers

Illustrated animal and bird poetry!

Dementia-friendly books

I know, I know – I already have so many large print illustrated poetry books!

I had found some lovely bird and animal poems that I wanted to share, though, so here we are.

Choosing dementia-friendly poems

Sometimes people ask, “Why aren’t all the poems by really famous poets like Keats or Byron?” – but that’s not always easy, especially with animal poems.

Yes, many great poets have written about their pet cat or dog – but as a memorial to a deceased pet. Or reflecting on a wounded deer… While these poems may be beautiful, they could cause sadness or confusion in a reader living with brain changes, so I have chosen cheerful poems, sometimes by less well-known poets.

For example, I have to confess I didn’t really know the work of Herbert Asquith (not the long-ago UK Prime Minister, but his son). Yet I just love ‘The Hairy Dog’ – so simple and charming! I hope your loved ones will also enjoy these poems…

The Hairy Dog (Herbert Asquith)

My dog’s so furry I’ve not seen
His face for years and years;
His eyes are buried out of sight,
I only guess his ears.

When people ask me for his breed,
I do not know or care;
He has the beauty of them all
Hidden beneath his hair.

Here are some sample pages so you can see the layout of the books…

Shared reading

All the books are slim and light, for a ‘just-enough’ reading experience for poetry lovers living with exhaustion, mild cognitive loss, or recovering from stroke.

Some people will be delighted to read alone, but others will enjoy shared reading. Many studies show great benefits from reading together. You provide a supportive voice, so your loved one can read along with more confidence. This is especially important when brain changes have made reading more challenging.

The bonus: sharing your thoughts about the picture or the poem (or about life) can inspire wonderful discussions!

You may find the books at your local library, and you’ll certainly find them on Amazon:

Illustrated Bird Poetry: ISBN 9781922191854. Universal Amazon link: https://mybook.to/BirdPoetry

Illustrated Animal Poetry: ISBN 9781922191861. Universal Amazon link: https://mybook.to/AnimalPoetry

Photo of Angi McCluskey with book Wishing for Memories

Wishing for Memories: A collection from people living with dementia

Dementia awareness events

Yesterday I went to the launch of a wonderful book: a beautifully designed collection of writings from people living with dementia: Wishing for Memories.

How important to have the voices of those ‘experts by experience’, sharing their wishes and stories – and what stories they are. Past adventures and misadventures, romances, business successes, as well as health challenges… a huge variety of lives well lived!

As the introduction says: ‘…behind every diagnosis is a person with a rich and unique past, still worthy of recognition and celebration.’

In the picture you can see Angi McCluskey, who founded Forget-Me-Not Dementia Support, a registered charity that supports Forget-Me-Not Memory Cafes. There are now cafes running at 34 locations around Western Australia.

If you’d been at the launch, however, you’d have seen Angi pull many other people up to the podium, to be celebrated for their role in the project.

It must have been a huge task to gather together so many voices, but what a validating experience for everyone involved. I could really feel that as I chatted to people over an excellent morning tea (hosted by the City of Belmont).

Inspiration for everyone from Forget-Me-Not and from Act Belong Commit. Thank you! Here is the book cover!

Georgia Efford with her book, A Garden in Gooseberry Hill

A Garden in Gooseberry Hill and the Uthando Project

Dementia-friendly books

There’s a lovely photo of Georgia in the Perth Hills local newspaper, The Echo. She’s sitting in her garden with a copy of A Garden in Gooseberry Hill in her hands! I am so thrilled with this book.

Not everyone knows about the Uthando Project, which is where all proceeds from the sale of this book will be directed. Georgia received an OAM for her humanitarian work with the project, which supports vulnerable children in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, and also offers a great sense of purpose and connection to the many doll-makers here in Australia and around the world. They make culturally appropriate dolls full of life and personality, and also support local doll-making in South Africa.

I have visited our wonderful partner agencies in South Africa, where the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought loss and trauma to many children. We ran doll-making workshops for Zulu grandmothers who are now caring for their grandchildren, workshops which promote the healing and connecting value of play. It was such a joy to work with those amazing women and with our partner teams.

Do take a look at the website: uthandoproject.org. If you’re a doll-maker, you can find patterns there. If you’d like to support in other ways – well, one of those ways is through this book!

Picture of Uthando Project dolls and book A Garden in Gooseberry Hill

Picture of young woman reading to older woman

Reading as a key to connection for people living with dementia

Reading for dementia

If you didn’t see this opinion piece in the Guardian, I really recommend it. It looks at the value of reading to people living with dementia – but also challenges the idea that people with dementia have in some way vanished, that they are no longer present. As writer Jo Granville points out, ‘How are you to know what is happening in someone else’s brain?’

In her article, ‘Reading was the key to breaking through the fog of my parents’ dementia!‘ she explores her accidental discovery of this:

Both continued to enjoy being read to until the end of their lives. They responded positively to hearing stories, poems and novels throughout their illnesses….

However, neither of them were able to communicate that they wanted me to read to them. I only discovered this by accident. My father would spend all day sitting silently in a chair…. To a casual visitor, he would appear to be “dead” to the world, apparently vacant. But he wasn’t – it was simply that, as I observed, Parkinson’s and dementia had robbed him of the ability to initiate a conversation or express a desire. 

The value of shared reading

She goes on to describe how she reconnected with her father and her mother through reading to them, and mentions the research – which of course tends to focus more on the shared reading experience, which I’m more familiar with, and is mentioned in the letters responding to this article (there’s a link in the sidebar). Perhaps I should now let you read the article for yourself:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/01/reading-key-breaking-through-fog-parents-dementia

Read-along with Illustrated Nature Poetry

Uncategorized

I’ve started recording the verses from Illustrated Nature Poetry, and putting them on YouTube.

The idea is that a care partner can play them for a ‘listen and read’ or ‘listen and read-along’ experience. Here’s a link to the growing playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0Cnf1PQ5rIeiY16bUccl4sXuVSkC7Eh

Why is this needed? Well, all these books can be enjoyed as a shared reading experience. However, it’s possible that not all care partners will feel confident to read classic poetry aloud. Maybe they’re not a poetry fan, or maybe English is a language they are still learning… If that is so, then hopefully this audio can make the shared reading experience more fun.

Each poem has its own short video. I introduce the poem in a chatty voice, then read the poem twice, with the second reading a little slower, to allow someone to read along, if they’d like to. ‘If they’d like to’ is an important point, as I don’t want anyone to feel pressured. In fact, I got feedback when I trialled this audio, reminding me to make that very clear!

I’ll keep recording and hopefully soon have all 19 poems done. I’ll also make a short introductory video for care partners, to suggest ways they can extend the reading to include discussion and reminiscence.

I hope this will be useful! Let me know!

An update for the hospice visitor books

Dementia-friendly books
Covers of hospice visitor books

I have some updated covers for the Thinking of You hospice-friendly visitor books! I wanted something a little more vibrant, to stand out on a bedside table or coverlet.

These visitor books are like the Get Well Visitor books, but without the Get Well wording. They can be used as standard hospital visitor books, but also for palliative care, chronic illness, or a difficult diagnosis.

For anyone in this situation, all the profound good wishes in the world to you. I hope you are constantly reminded of how much people love and value you.

And if you are visiting someone in hospice, and wonder what you’ll say, here’s a lovely article from the Cancer Council of Victoria. And do remember that when someone seems unresponsive, they may be too tired to open their eyes, but still be able to hear. So always speak to them, never about them. It’s a beautiful opportunity to talk about what they have meant to you, or to revisit great times you’ve shared.

Find out more about these books on the Thinking of You page.

Dementia Australia Library

Dementia-friendly books

Are you in Australia? Did you know that Dementia Australia has a fantastic library? It’s like a free public library, but all the titles relate to dementia. It’s the largest publicly accessible dementia library in the world!

You can browse and have instant access to e-books and audio books. There’s also the opportunity to ask to borrow hard copy titles.

I counted 66 headings in the Topic Guide, like Living with a Recent Diagnosis, Eye Health and Dementia, Long Distance Caring … but of course I’m interested in Reading: Sharing the Experience.

I just borrowed Anne Vize’s Reading in the Moment: Activities and Stories to share with Adults with Dementia. I’d read it before, but wanted the opportunity to look again at the research into bibliotherapy and the suggested readings.

There are also dementia-friendly books (like the ones I write, and including some of mine). Libraries are always a great source of support, but this one is so dementia-specific, and you can email them if you need help to locate something.

Please pass this information on to anyone that doesn’t yet know about it. If they search for Dementia Australia Library, it should be the first result!

A Garden in Gooseberry Hill

Dementia-friendly books

My original name for this memory-friendly book was ‘Georgia’s Garden’, celebrating the amazing artist and keen gardener, Georgia Efford. I know her through her work with the Uthando Project grassroots charity group (for which she got an Order of Australia). Every time I went to meetings at her house in the Perth Hills, here in Western Australia, I found myself wandering outside, admiring her garden.

So when I thought about creating a book on gardening, Georgia came to mind. Would she say yes? Yes, she would!

Gardens are so different in different places, so how do you create a book that everyone can relate to? We decided that Georgia would offer her reflections on her garden and gardening, paired with her own evocative photos, and matched with questions asking the reader to think about their own gardening experience.

This is the first in a ‘Read and Chat’ series, where I hope to feature other ‘real-life’ stories with questions to chat about. Feedback so far has called this a ‘happy’ book, and that’s really what we wanted to achieve. You can see the amount of text in the picture above…just three paragraphs of extra large print per page, and each spread is a new topic.

Profits from sales will go to the Uthando Project, on Georgia’s request.

Here’s a link to the book for Amazon Australia, and also a universal link: https://mybook.to/GooseberryHillGarden

The Perfect Pie dementia-friendly short stories by Cathy Emma Laybourn cover of book

The Perfect Pie: Memory-friendly short stories

Dementia-friendly books

I promised I’d write some dementia-friendly fiction, but I haven’t quite got there yet. However, my lovely sister Emma writes magazine short stories and children’s books (amongst other things!) and has always encouraged me in my memory-friendly writing. So a while ago, I asked if she would consider writing some short stories adapted for mild cognitive loss.

As I’m sure you know, people living with early brain changes often find that while they can still read, they get confused as they turn the page… Who am I reading about? What’s going on? They may still want to read a story with a plot (rather than description only), but they need a little unobtrusive support to stay with the story.

Now here’s the result of Emma’s work! Two collections of large print, ‘feel-good’ stories of everyday life, the kind you’d find in a magazine. However, each new spread has a small reminder at the top of the page of who the characters are and what the story is about. Then as you read down the page, there are more small, subtle reminders of what’s happening. Here’s an example from The Perfect Pie and other stories (by Cathy Emma Laybourn).

First page of dementia-friendly story, The Perfect Pie
Second and third page of dementia-friendly story, The Perfect Pie. We see how the subtle repeats support memory.

These memory-friendly stories feature relatable situations, for example:

The Perfect Pie – Brian has promised to cook a meal for his friend Larry. But Larry keeps changing his mind about his favourite food! What can Brian do?
The Beach Hunt – Moira and her grand-daughter Sophie are enjoying a day on the beach, when Sophie loses a shell bracelet. However, Moira has a solution.
The Lost List – Alec arrives at the supermarket without his shopping list. But thanks to his helpful nature, he ends up with a few new friends as well as all his shopping.
A Change of Garden – Jean is moving to a new flat. Although she’s looking forward to it, she will miss her garden, and especially its bird life. But her son has a surprise waiting at her new home.

Friends and family always feature, as Emma herself says:

When writing for various magazines, no matter what type of stories I wrote, the importance of friendships and family was always central – and that’s true of these stories as well.

She lives in the UK, so there are a few references to money as ‘pounds’ or to ‘thrushes and greenfinches’ in the garden, but the story themes are universal, featuring the challenges and successes of life, with a feel-good ending:

I’ve used simplified, linear storylines and straightforward but not childish language, as well as plenty of memory prompts within the story. I tried to avoid depicting the characters as elderly (although there are a couple of stories about grand-parents and their children) because not all people with memory loss are elderly, and not all elderly people think of themselves as old!

If you’d like to take a proper look, here are the links to The Perfect Pie and other stories and A Robin in the House and other stories. These are universal links to the Amazon store in your country.

All very exciting – and hopefully inspiring to me to do some of my own memory-friendly fiction writing … thanks, Emma!

Dementia Action Week and beyond…

Dementia awareness events

Dementia Action week is over, and I had such an absorbing time – meeting RPH staff, and so many great people from other organisations, on the ‘bridge’ (a busy thoroughfare between buildings). Lots of meaningful conversations with members of the general public and staff members on their way somewhere – and also a few people averting their eyes, or mumbling ‘not for me’, as they hurried past. The word ‘dementia’ is a confronting one for so many of us, and yet there was so much wonderful information from places like Dementia Australia, CarersWA, and Alzheimer’s WA on getting an early diagnosis, or getting support – not just leaflets, but personalised advice from people who work in the field!

I missed one day, to attend the Dementia Symposium, for a wealth of input on current services, provision and initiatives – and also so much connection and warmth. A lot of learning for me, since this isn’t my professional area (that’s adult education, if you haven’t yet seen my ‘about’ page). Then more fascinating learning (and more great connections) last week, at the Edith Cowan University Preventative Health and Positive Ageing Summit. A huge thanks to all the organisers and people who put so much time and effort in to share what they know – and what the rest of us need to know…