A deeply felt, child-appropriate book on dying that’s resonant for all ages.
A debut picture book for children and adults that offers a positive perspective on loss and grief.
This elegantly simple book by Bertram, an art therapist, focuses on the close relationship between a grandmother and her grandchild. It’s told from the child’s point of view as the youngster processes the impending loss of a beloved grandmother, who once “bathed me, fed me, played with me and loved me.” The grandmother is nearing the end of her life (“[a]s I got bigger, the body Grandma’s spirit lived in became old and tired”), and now she’s being bathed, fed and loved with her grandchild’s help. Grandma’s spirit, the child says, has grown too big for the body that houses it; soon it will “rise up and she will become one with everything around me, including myself. She will be part of the rain, sun, wind, and trees.” In this comforting, soulful view of the afterlife, sunlight will be Grandma’s hug, and the rain will be Grandma saying hello. Sitting high in a “comfy” tree will be like sitting in Grandma’s lap (“I will hear her stories inside me”), and the wind will be Grandma’s invitation to run and play. And “one day,” as is the natural way of things, the child says, “I will grow too big for my house,” and “[a]s the wind, I will sing quietly in your ear….I will be the rain that taps you on the head.” The expressive flow and swirl of Bertram’s and DiGuiseppi’s colorful mixed-media illustrations provide a complementary backdrop to the well-crafted text. The author makes no reference to religion, instead offering readers of all ages an inclusive, uplifting message of transition, connection and spiritual renewal.
A deeply felt, child-appropriate book on dying that’s resonant for all ages.Pub Date: March 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615896267
Page Count: 32
Publisher: BravenArt
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
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