I received this book for free. This does not impact my review in any shape or form.

All the Pieces, by Hallie Riggs and Illustrated by Adriana Predoi, is a book about helping a child cope with a parent’s overdose and subsequent suicide. I enjoyed the soft tone of the story, and although I’d prefer the father’s “pieces” be first, rather than his pieces and his overdose, it ties into the bittersweet characterization the book nourishes. It definitely helps that the father’s addiction is introduced as a completely different person, rather than a part of who he is. In the addiction professions, a lot of people, clients and therapists both, will still assume that addiction is caused by a moral failing. For Riggs and Predoi. to show that the addiction is a “disease” not apart of someone spoke volumes to how we can remove the stigma as a whole.

Moreover, I like the way Predoi demonstrates fragments of these wonderful memories through the use of puzzle pieces. At the same time, it appeared that the struggles that the father was going through encompassed entire pages, The fact that Predoi used little aspects of light at the end of the book demonstrated that in spite of the pain, there was love and hope, similar to the puzzle pieces. I do wish Predoi used darker colors to show how deep his mental struggles went, but I liked the pinks and blues she used as well. It’s severe, but I feel that it shows that the father had support, and he did the best he could.

Often times, addiction is an isolating condition that cuts people off from their loved ones. It’s even more of a sorrow when the person who’s going through this has no one left to help them because they’ve burned all their bridges. So for the child and his grandmother to continue to support him, even though he’s distancing himself, shows how resilient the child is. And how the grandmother handled everything demonstrates how important it is to have the child’s wellbeing in mind, to show that he wasn’t his fault, where neither he nor anyone else was being blamed for it.

Aside from slight organizational changes, I really enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend this for families who have younger children and who struggle to identify healthy ways to cope with a parent who has an addiction or a mental illness.