Endorsements

Post Publication praise for the book...

  • Sarton Women's Book Award finalist

    The Story Circle Network

    The Story Circle Network is the sponsor of the Sarton Women's Book Award™, granted annually to women’s memoir, contemporary and historical fiction, biography, and young adult/new adult fiction, self-published or published by independent and university presses.

    "This book is a must-read for grief counselors and social workers, or anyone who works with children. It is illuminating for anyone who would like insight into the grieving process. Profoundly moving, and well-written." read more...

  • Reader's Favorite Book Review

    "I Know It in My Heart: Walking Through Grief with a Child by Mary E. Plouffe Ph.D. is a powerful, heart wrenching memoir that takes a visceral, somewhat clinical look at loss, grief, and healing, the journey of a woman and a child through devastating loss." read more...

  • KIRKUS Reviews:

    "... A bracing and accessible account of the conflict between emotion and intellect... A remarkable, empathic, and intense exploration of the nature of grief and guilt.." read more...

Pre-release praise for the book...

  • "I wish this book had existed decades ago, to help adults understand how children navigate grief during and after a parent’s death. Kudos to Mary Plouffe, Ph.D. not just for writing this book about the aftermath of her sister’s death but also for helping her niece adjust to the absence from ages 3-15 and beyond. This is an important addition to the children’s bereavement field. Highly recommended."
    Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters and many other grief books
  • "A searing, beautifully written story of unfathomable grief and unbreakable family bonds. If you are a human being, read this."
    – Monica Wood, author of When We Were the Kennedys and The One-in-a-Million Boy
  • "Because we are mortal, love always turns to grief, but honest remembering, of the kind Mary Plouffe does here, restores it to its true nature. As a therapist, Plouffe understands the difficult pathways of mourning; as a sister, she has had to walk them in sorrow and wonder; as a writer, she has depicted the terrain with a power and beauty that will make I Know It in My Heart a classic."
    – Richard Hoffman, author of Half the House and Love & Fury
  • "In a profound yet simple way, Mary Plouffe gives us a compelling personal story of grieving, - from her sister's diagnosis, then caring for her little niece, her own family, herself, then loss and onto healing.   Her evident experience as a psychologist adds authority to a universal story in a deep and tender way….a noteworthy compassionate companion, eloquent and reassuring".
    – Anne Lynch Heros, Director, Maine Center for Grieving Children
  • "Mary Plouffe has written an achingly beautiful family guide to loss and healing. This is a story that will make a difference, told with grace and wit and the keen understanding of a sister's grief and a child's capacity for hope. I could not put it down."
    – Susan Conley, author of The Foremost Good Fortune, Paris was the Place, Stop Here, This is the Place
  • "Mary Plouffe's love for her late sister lives on in the close relationship she built with her niece after their mutual great loss, just as it lives on in I Know it in My Heart, a book that so poignantly bows to the often-unacknowledged pain suffered by a grieving sibling, and the life-altering loss experienced by a young child."
    – Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Songs from a Lead Lined Room, This is Paradise, and Sundays in America