Growing up comes with a lot of messages about who you’re supposed to be.
Remembering the Cosmic is a novel that gives young people some room to wonder about those messages, their relationships, their choices, and what it might mean to live as themselves.
Meet Chloe
Chloe is a teenager when we first meet her.
She’s already beginning to learn that some parts of herself are easier to hide than explain.
Twelve years later, she’s done many of the things she thought she was supposed to do, but somewhere along the way she’s lost touch with herself.
Remembering the Cosmic follows Chloe as she begins finding her way back, exploring relationships, beliefs, choices and some of the messages she’s picked up about who she’s supposed to be.
Why is this book ideal for young people?
Because it’s much easier to stay connected to yourself than it is to find your way back after you’ve spent years becoming who you thought you were supposed to be.
Throughout Chloe’s story, Remembering the Cosmic introduces ideas and practical tools young people can explore in their own lives, around relationships, communication, beliefs, choices and listening to themselves.
Not instructions for how to live.
Things to notice. Ideas to question. Tools to try.
Things the book opens up
Remembering the Cosmic touches on questions young people are already navigating, including:
- How do you know which beliefs are actually yours?
- What does a healthy relationship look like?
- How do you communicate what you need without losing sight of the other person?
- What happens when fitting in means hiding parts of yourself?
- How much of what we believe about success, happiness and a “good life” have we simply absorbed from somewhere else?
- How do you remain yourself when someone else has more power than you?
- How is that different from navigating disagreement or pressure from your peers?
- How can you tell the difference between healthy authority and someone misusing their power and what can you do when a situation doesn’t feel healthy or safe?
- How do you listen to yourself when everyone else seems to have an opinion?
There aren’t tidy answers to all of these questions in the book. That’s rather the point.
About the book
Remembering the Cosmic is a novel that combines Chloe’s story with ideas and practical tools readers can explore for themselves.
Themes include: identity, belonging, relationships, communication, boundaries, power, beliefs, responsibility, choice, spirituality and finding your own way.
The story includes some mature themes and occasional strong language. Some parts of Chloe’s story deal with emotional distress and unhealthy relationship dynamics.
Available in paperback, hardback and ebook.
Recommended for: senior secondary students, school leavers and young adults.
For teachers and librarians
Remembering the Cosmic can be read simply as a novel or used as a starting point for conversations about some of the questions raised throughout Chloe’s story.
It could be used for independent reading, book groups or guided discussions with senior students.
You don’t need to agree with every idea in the book. Neither do your students.
Curiosity, disagreement and questioning are welcome.
Interested in using the book?
If you’re a teacher or librarian interested in Remembering the Cosmic, I’d love to hear from you.
I’m developing simple discussion material to accompany the book and I’m also happy to talk about school or library visits and ways the book might be used with your students.