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Simple Acts of Care
How to Help When Loved Ones are Hurting
Foreword by Meghan Riordan Jarvis / Illustrated by R.A. Smith
Published by The Collective Book Studio
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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Table of Contents
About the Book
Simple Acts of Care is a practical, compassionate guide to showing up with empathy and intention when someone you care about is hurting.
"Simple Acts of Care is a compassionate, practical self-help guide for all who’ve felt at a loss for words."—Foreword Reviews
"Simple Acts of Care is the book you need when you feel useless in the face of a loved one’s suffering." —Annabel Monaghan, Bestselling Author of Nora Goes Off Script
"By sharing her own family’s experience, Natalie connects with the reader emotionally while giving original, useful advice." — Zibby Owens, bestselling author and podcast host, Totally Booked
When a friend or family member is dealing with illness, grief, crisis, overwhelm, or the demands of caregiving, the instinct to help is immediate—but knowing what to say or do can be hard. Natalie Silverstein offers clear, caring guidance for supporting others in ways that are useful, meaningful, and truly comforting.
Through short reflective essays, practical suggestions, and beautifully designed reminders, Simple Acts of Care helps readers understand how small gestures can offer real comfort in difficult times.
Here’s what makes Simple Acts of Care an essential guide for supporting others:
• Practical Guidance for Hard Moments: Clear advice for what to say, what to do, and how to support someone who is hurting.
• For Grief, Illness, Caregiving, and Crisis: A helpful resource for showing up during loss, medical challenges, difficult transitions, and life upheaval.
• Compassionate and Easy to Use: Short essays, reflective prompts, and full-color illustrations make the book approachable and reassuring.
• A Meaningful Gift for Difficult Times: A supportive book for friends, families, support groups, workplaces, and caregiving communities.
Simple Acts of Care is a compassionate guide for anyone who wants to help a grieving friend, support a caregiver, comfort a loved one during illness or loss, and show up with empathy when words feel hard to find.
"Simple Acts of Care is a compassionate, practical self-help guide for all who’ve felt at a loss for words."—Foreword Reviews
"Simple Acts of Care is the book you need when you feel useless in the face of a loved one’s suffering." —Annabel Monaghan, Bestselling Author of Nora Goes Off Script
"By sharing her own family’s experience, Natalie connects with the reader emotionally while giving original, useful advice." — Zibby Owens, bestselling author and podcast host, Totally Booked
When a friend or family member is dealing with illness, grief, crisis, overwhelm, or the demands of caregiving, the instinct to help is immediate—but knowing what to say or do can be hard. Natalie Silverstein offers clear, caring guidance for supporting others in ways that are useful, meaningful, and truly comforting.
Through short reflective essays, practical suggestions, and beautifully designed reminders, Simple Acts of Care helps readers understand how small gestures can offer real comfort in difficult times.
Here’s what makes Simple Acts of Care an essential guide for supporting others:
• Practical Guidance for Hard Moments: Clear advice for what to say, what to do, and how to support someone who is hurting.
• For Grief, Illness, Caregiving, and Crisis: A helpful resource for showing up during loss, medical challenges, difficult transitions, and life upheaval.
• Compassionate and Easy to Use: Short essays, reflective prompts, and full-color illustrations make the book approachable and reassuring.
• A Meaningful Gift for Difficult Times: A supportive book for friends, families, support groups, workplaces, and caregiving communities.
Simple Acts of Care is a compassionate guide for anyone who wants to help a grieving friend, support a caregiver, comfort a loved one during illness or loss, and show up with empathy when words feel hard to find.
About the Author
Natalie Silverstein is an author, podcast host, and nonprofit founder. She is the author of Simple Acts: The Busy Family’s Guide to Giving Back (2019), named one of the Top Books for Parents Who Want to Raise Kind Kids by HuffPost, and Simple Acts: The Busy Teen’s Guide to Making a Difference (2022). She hosts the award-winning Simple Acts, Big Impact podcast. Natalie is the New York coordinator for Doing Good Together, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping families engage in meaningful service. She is a founding member of Impact 100 NYC, a women’s giving circle that has distributed over one million dollars to nonprofits. Along with her husband, she is co-founder of The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA. Natalie holds a master’s degree in public health from Yale University and lives in New York City with her husband and three children.
About the Illustrator
R.A. Smith is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Sonoma County, California. Her illustration work includes the picture books Fun in the Mud, Little Loon Finds His Voice, Our Friend Moon, and Our Friend Earth. She has also illustrated adult nonfiction titles including Embrace the Work, Love Your Career, Reflect and Reset, and Simple Acts of Care. R.A. is passionate about bringing stories to life through pictures and thoughtful design. Her work is rooted in traditional drawing and painting, combined with vector graphics. She collaborates with local entrepreneurs and authors, as well as independent publishers.
Product Details
- Publisher: The Collective Book Studio (December 1, 2026)
- Length: 152 pages
- ISBN13: 9781685555191
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Raves and Reviews
"Simple Acts of Care is a compassionate, practical self-help guide for all who’ve felt at a loss for words."
– Foreword Reviews
"Simple Acts of Care is the book you need when you feel useless in the face of a loved one’s suffering. Beautifully written, it is such an important resource for anyone who wants to show up for people with empathy and grace. I wish I’d read this decades ago."
– Annabel Monaghan, Bestselling Author of Nora Goes Off Script
"Beautiful. By sharing her own family’s experience, Natalie connects with the reader emotionally while giving original, useful advice. An original, helpful, poignant resource for caregivers, mourners, the diagnosed. and everyone who loves them."
– Zibby Owens, bestselling author and podcast host, Totally Booked
"When someone we love is suffering, the question of what to say or do can feel overwhelming. In Simple Acts of Care, Natalie Silverstein gently and wisely guides us through that uncertainty. With honesty about what helps, what doesn’t, and why, she invites us to move beyond platitudes and into authentic connection. From sidestepping the ‘pity face’ to making meaningful, specific offers of help, her insights are both practical and deeply empathetic. This is an essential, reassuring companion for anyone who wants to show up with care that truly makes a difference."
– Jessica Fein, Bestselling Author of Breath Taking and podcast host, I Don’t Know How You Do It
"Simple Acts of Care is an incredibly thoughtful and much-needed guide for anyone who wants to show up well for a loved one who is hurting. Natalie Silverstein beautifully explains the difference between empathy and pity, and why curiosity or well-meaning platitudes can sometimes miss the mark. This book gives us the words—and the confidence—to support the people we love in a way that is truly helpful when we feel so helpless."
– Fran Hauser, Bestselling Author of The Myth of the Nice Girl and owner of Bedford Books
"Natalie Silverstein has written a warm, clear-eyed, and immediately useful book. She draws from her own experience to offer the rest of us a gentle but practical guide for truly showing up for the people we love. Her concept of 'targeted support' alone is worth the read, replacing the well-meaning but hollow 'How can I help?' with something that actually helps. This book is a gift — not just for the person giving care, but for all of us who have ever wished the people around us had read something exactly like this."
– Christina Geist, Bestselling Author of Before You Fly Away: Life Lessons from Home
Resources and Downloads
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