Where we serve
Partnering hospitals
Ruby’s Reading Circle is offered to newly bereaved parents at participating hospitals. We are growing the circle, with more to come.
Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital
Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital
More to come
The book menu
Curated with intention
Books for Baby
Parents are invited to choose one of these books to read to their baby and keep as a cherished memento of their time together.
The Invisible String / El Hilo Invisible
by Patrice Karst, Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You
by Nancy Tillman
Un Beso en Mi Mano
by Audrey Penn
That's Me Loving You
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Books for Siblings
Families with living children are welcome to select an additional book designed to support siblings as they navigate this together.
Dear Star Baby
by Malcolm Newsome
There Was a Baby...
by Laura J. Cameron
The Garden of Memories
by Playful & Active Mind Books
Everywhere, Still
by M.H. Clark
Donate a book
Give a memory in your baby’s name
Books are donated by loss parents and their networks in memory of other babies. Every donated book carries a dedication sticker honoring the baby who inspired the gift, and a nameplate for the baby it is given to. Donations ship directly to us, and we deliver them to the hospitals.
Important — please read before ordering
Add your dedication in the Amazon gift receipt
When you check out, select “This is a gift” and include your dedication details in the gift message. Without it, we can’t dedicate the book properly.
- ✦ Baby’s name being honored
- ✦ Donor name, as you’d like it to appear (optional)
- ✦ A short message, if you’d like one included
“While this moment is far from what families pictured, it is more precious than they may realize. When our daughter was stillborn in September 2024, one of our deepest regrets was not spending enough time with her before saying goodbye — we simply did not know how. This program is meant to encourage families to make a memory with their baby through a simple act that feels gentle and natural in a moment that is anything but.”
Jenna Mills — Ruby’s mom and project lead
How it works
A moment that lasts forever
When a family learns their baby has died, the world they had pictured — first cries, tiny hands, a future filled with firsts — quietly falls away. In the hush of the hospital room, amid a grief too vast for words, parents often don’t know what to do. How to be with their baby. How to make the few hours they have mean something.
This is where Ruby’s Reading Circle meets them. A nurse gently offers a book, chosen with care. A parent opens it and reads aloud — and for a little while, time slows. The baby is held. Spoken to. Known. A memory is made that no sorrow can take away.
The book goes home with them. Long after the hospital room fades, it remains — a keepsake of a love that mattered, proof that their baby was here, and was loved. For families with living children, a sibling book helps brothers and sisters hold that love too.
Every book you donate becomes that moment for another family.
Dedicated in a baby’s name, it travels from your hands into theirs — and becomes something they will hold forever.
Donate a book