Born, my new children’s book is out!

Although COVID-19 has delayed the release of the print edition of my new children’s book, Born, I am happy to report that my publisher, Groundwood Books, has gone ahead with the release of the ebook edition. Thanks to everyone at Groundwood  for your support and hard work in bringing this book to life! It has already received some lovely reviews:

John Sobol’s narrative is beautifully written, using third person and very poetic. It would be hard to read this lyrical poem without feeling the great emotional weight created by the contemplation of such universal experiences as the nature of birth, life, and connection.

Born is a book about the experience of being born, as told from the perspective of a baby.

Here is an inside spread from the book:

Born has its roots in an ecstatic moment of recognition that I experienced many years ago as a young traveler sitting alone late one night by the banks of the Nile river in Cairo. At that particular time I was in rough shape — my backpack had gone missing and I was broke, feverish, friendless and visa-less — yet as I rested gratefully beneath the bright moon and the palm trees I felt myself suddenly transported back to my mother’s womb. Sitting in that ancient place I had an unmistakable and deeply immersive sensation of my self before I was born, and that powerful experience has stayed with me ever since.

Later I supported my amazing wife Annie through her pregnancies and witnessed the birth of our two children, Sophie and Louis. I wanted to celebrate these experiences in a unique story that would allow mothers and their young children to remember and celebrate the extraordinary intimacy of their shared birth experience.

Here is an excerpt from Born that I read for to accompany an interview with 49th Shelf: