‘When the Sky Lost Its Colors,’ a book created in the aftermath of the Altadena fire

Just like any other 7 year-old, Henry Giles enjoys playing with his younger brother and friends. He likes his plush toys and enjoys talking about the objects he can create with a 3-D printer. However, it is the warmth and the physical presence of his parents that make him feel safe as he continues to cope with the hardship of losing everything. 

The Giles home was among the nearly 6,000 properties destroyed during the Eaton Fire in Altadena in Jan. 2025.

Deisy Suarez-Giles and her husband bought their Altadena home six years ago. Her two children were attending Altadena Arts Magnet Elementary and life seemed good for everyone.

However, the night of the fire Deisy woke up her two children and the family left home only with the clothes they had on and a few belongings. Henry, who was six at that time, was able to take two plush toys with him. 

He remembers the light went off and then everything lost its color. 

“The sky was dark. There was a lot of smoke. So he noticed that,” Deisy said. 

When they went back to their home, there was nothing left. No chimney to let Santa Claus in on Christmas Eve or the 3-D printer he loved. All they had was each other. 

Deisy said she was in shock to see her house turned to ashes, but she also recognized that her son maintained his composure and remained strong, especially  during a TV interview where he explained everything he witnessed. 

A book is created

The family moved to Sherman Oaks, but it was very difficult for her two children, especially Henry, to adapt to a new life. Reality hit hard and ordinary things, such as the view of a mountain would trigger his anxiety.

“He thought the mountains were going to catch fire,” Deisy said.

As the active person she is, she didn’t let the loss get the best of them. That’s when she decided to help her children cope with the loss in a unique way: by writing a book. 

“So I wanted to use the project to keep my kids engaged, busy, their minds distracted and at the same time, I wanted those words that he said to remain and live somewhere forever,” she said. “I wanted to use it as a tool to help every other little kid out there during the fire.”

Through this process, she learned that many other children were also having a hard time coping with their new reality. Being moved away from their school, their homes and their friends felt like an unexpected separation: segregation.

“I saw a lot of those little kids grieving. They were hurting differently, like they processed pain and loss a little differently than adults,” she said. 

The children’s book is well explained in a way that little ones can understand, as Henry narrates that night of displacement and his younger brother Luca appears throughout the story. 

“The fire was coming towards [us] like it was dancing,” he said.

Then he talks about their escape and the feeling after losing his home, but at the end there is a happy ending. 

“He lets everybody else know that the colors do come back. They come different, or maybe they never go away, because the colors that really matter are family, home, strength and courage,” Deisy said. 

A specific purpose

The book, “When the Sky Lost Its Colors,”  is ready for preordering and it is expected to be released to the public in the next few weeks. 

Henry said the book not only will help other children understand the process of grieving, which is different for everyone, but also will help his school.

“I want to help my school because they're losing money and they need students because they're losing students and they're losing teachers,” Henry said.

While the school didn’t burn to the ground, it did sustain severe damages and there were high levels of toxicity.  About 90% percent of the school was displaced. 

Deisy said when the school reopened, almost everything had changed. Henry mentioned to his mother that the school needed money because they needed art teachers. 

“And I'm like, this is an art school, they should have an art teacher, but I guess [they were laid off] during the budget cuts. Now they have one that is there, like two, three times a week,” she said. “So I said to him, ‘Maybe we can take some of the shares of your book and we can donate it.’”

Henry said he feels happy to be able to help others, especially his friends with whom he shares a mutual feeling: loss and grief.

“I want to let other people and children know that it's okay to be sad and if your house burns down, things will break, but it's still okay,” Henry said.