The Forgettery

Hong Kong based author, Rachel Ip, tells Playtimes about her latest book

The Forgettery, illustrated by Laura Hughes, is the sweet story of young girl named Amelia and her granny who wind up venturing into the magical world of memories. Here in this special place known at The Forgettery, they find all that’s ever been forgotten. Amelia helps her granny find her most treasured memories, making more along the way. It is a beautifully illustrated and truly enchanting tale which gently touches on the topic of memory loss but also celebrates the unique bond between grandparents and grandchildren.

The idea behind this story came when Rachel’s daughter asked, “where do all the forgotten things go?” Rachel answered they are all in The Forgettery and from there a story emerged. Considering how adults frame the memories of children by putting structure in place so they don’t forget things, Rachel started looking into the subjects of memories, memory loss and dementia. In her research she discovered that cases of dementia are on the rise and affect millions of people globally.

Exploring these topics lead Rachel to look into how to support those living with memory loss and she learned how the brain stores memories. In The Forgettery, Amelia makes a memory book to help her granny remember. Throughout the story, pertinent topics are addressed and pave the way for discussions with young children. She feels picture books are a wonderful way of connecting to big themes like this and opening up conversations. They are books to read together and become a shared experience.

She also accomplishes this in her book, The Last Garden, illustrated by Anneli Bray, which is about a little girl in a war-torn city who tends to the last garden. Inspired by true events in Syria and war gardens around the world and throughout history, The Last Garden is a story of hope touching on issues of conflict and migration.

Rachel, who is on the board of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, has been a visiting author at schools across Hong Kong. She recently discussed conflict and migration through The Last Garden and students showed great insights and empathy when exploring the these difficult themes.

In her school visits, Rachel has shared her notebooks (messy by her own admission) and explained the editing process. Through these sessions she hopes to inspire children to engage in the creative process and to show that it takes time and effort to get the words right, even for an experienced writer.

Rachel Ip is a Hong Kong based author and mother of 2 young children.