The Memory Box & Charlotte’s Surprise
The Memory Box and Charlotte’s Big Surprise follows Charlotte through the moment most children in these families will recognise, when someone they love starts to forget and nobody quite knows what to say. Written to be read together, it gives parents, grandparents, teachers, and counselors the words to open that conversation honestly and without alarm, using Charlotte’s story to hold the weight of it in a way that feels safe for a young child. It is a book families come back to as the questions change and grow.
Homer L. Hartage
Author, Thought Leader, President & CEO
Decades of guardianship work shaped a body of writing devoted to memory, dignity, and the families who carry both.
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Homer L. Hartage
Author, Thought Leader, President & CEO
Decades of guardianship work shaped a body of writing devoted to memory, dignity, and the families who carry both.
Product Description
• Format: Hardcover, Paperback, and Digital
• Price: $24.50 Hardcover
• ISBN-13: 9798988804451
• Publisher: The Hartage Foundation Inc.
• Language: English
• Narrative Type: Non-Fiction
• Author: Homer L Hartage
• Distributed by Ingram, available through all major book retailers
• Signed copies available on request at checkout
• Recommended age: 4 to 10 years
• US orders ship within 24 hours
• International shipping available
• 30-day returns, no questions asked
• Bulk pricing available for schools and educational institutions
The Children's Book That Helps Families Talk About Alzheimer's
Children notice before they are told. They see a grandparent repeat the same question twice in ten minutes. They see a face that looks familiar but feels somehow further away. They ask an adult about it and the adult does not know what to say. That is the moment this book was written for.
I have spent decades sitting with families at hard moments. I know what it costs a child to carry a question they cannot name. I wrote The Memory Box and Charlotte’s Big Surprise because children deserve a story that meets them where they are, not one that talks around the thing they already sense.
Charlotte’s story uses Alzheimer’s by name, handled with care, because children hear the word eventually and they do better when a trusted adult has already given it meaning. This book gives families the words to start that conversation, and it is built to be read more than once as the questions change and grow.
What This Book Does for Your Family
This is not a book that explains Alzheimer’s disease to children in clinical terms. It is a book that sits with them inside the feeling of it.
• Introduces the word Alzheimer’s with reassurance, so children are not left to fill in the gaps with fear
• Follows Charlotte through a moment most children in these families will recognise, and shows her finding her way back to connection
• Gives parents, grandparents, teachers, and counselors a way into the conversation without having to find the words from scratch
• Includes a Memory Box activity that children can return to when feelings are big and words are hard
Designed for children aged 4 to 10 and written to be revisited as children grow and their questions change. You can read more about the book here.
Who This Book Is For
This children’s book on Alzheimer’s is for you if you are a parent or grandparent and someone in your family has Alzheimer’s. A child in your home has started asking questions you are not sure how to answer. You want something you can sit with them and read together that doesn’t make the conversation any harder than it already is.
You are a teacher, a school counselor, or a child psychologist. You work with children who are navigating a grandparent’s memory loss or a parent’s early-onset diagnosis. You need a book you can use in a session or recommend to a family that handles the subject with honesty and without alarm.
You are buying a gift. Someone you know has a young child at home and a family member with Alzheimer’s. You want to give them something genuinely useful, not just a well-meaning gesture.
Why a Guardianship Professional Wrote a Children's Book
Homer L. Hartage spent thirty years in professional guardianship in Florida. In that work, he sat with families at the point when a loved one could no longer care for themselves. He watched grandchildren ask questions at the edges of those conversations. He saw how much a child’s understanding of what was happening depended on whether an adult had the words to explain it.
That is where this book comes from. Not from a distance, and not from theory. From the rooms where those conversations happen and the children who were sitting in them. Read Homer’s full story here.
What Readers Are Saying
We are collecting feedback from readers. If you have read The Memory Box and Charlotte’s Big Surprise and would like to share your experience, please get in touch at guardians@agedcareguardian.com.
