Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4. With perfect candor and the kind of humor kids will appreciate, Stalfelt, who previously tackled love, now considers death. She briskly notes that death is hard to understand not only for children but also for big folk, even very big folk (like an elephant). Without a trace of sentimentality, she talks about how every living thing dies and how we feel when they are gone. Maybe there is a God, she says, or maybe everyone turns into angels with wings, or maybe one grows "out of the earth as a flower when you die." She talks about wakes and funerals and cemeteries, and she includes a screamingly funny vignette of a TV interviewer holding a mike up to a ghost and asking why it likes to scare people. The illustrations are squiggly and amusing, done as multiple small images on the page interspersed between the lines of text. Both text and images have an unambiguous honesty about skeletons and body parts. Perhaps odd to American sensibilities, this is still interesting and, for some, just right. GraceAnne A. DeCandido
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Swedish author-illustrator Stalfelt (The Hair Book; The Love Book) takes a humorous approach to a tough topic: death and dying. Comical watercolor cartoons (their European sensibility includes a sprightly sprinkling of anatomically correct figures) quickly set the tone. Meanwhile, the straightforward text explores ancient and modern burial rituals, terms for death ("passed away," "bit the dust," "went to the happy hunting grounds") and the many theories about "where you go when you die" (heaven, ghosts-there's even a silly riff on vampires). Stalfelt tucks in plenty of giggles (for an example of reincarnation-"What if you become a hot dog???"-she shows a protesting wiener about to be eaten-"Noooo"), but some youngsters may be frightened by the forthright facts (e.g., "Sometimes a baby is already dead when it's born" or "One day you have your grandpa. The next day you may not be able to see him anymore"). With its candid and relaxed tone, the light-hearted narrative may raise as many questions as it answers, and will likely offend some adults with its irreverence. However, children old enough to understand the issues may appreciate the book's informal style, which leavens the weighty theme. From the opening page's discussion of how death is difficult to understand-"It can be hard even if you're really big" shows a puzzled elephant grappling with the concept-to the sweetly goofy "Song from Above" that caps the entire production, this is an original approach to a challenging subject for young readers. Ages 8-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-This title addresses a topic of interest and confusion to youngsters. Unfortunately, interspersed between some reassuring comments ("It's hard to understand what death is- not only when you're little, but when you're big, too-") are others that need more explanation ("Sometimes a baby is already dead when it's born" and "God is there [in the heavenly kingdom], waiting for everyone who has died to arrive-"). Throughout, flippant writing detracts from the seriousness of the subject and might offend readers ("There may be those who turn into vampires- like Stan, for example. Once when Stan was going to bite an old lady and suck her blood- one thousand mosquitoes came and bit him instead and sucked his blood! Served him right!"). Several spot-art cartoons per page include anatomically correct figures (dead and alive). A better choice for this age group is Karen Bryant-Mole's Death (Raintree, 1999), which is illustrated with color photos and includes notes for parents and teachers.-Doris Losey, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, Tampa, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This frank but playful treatment of the subject of death talks about why living things die; describes funerals, grieving, different burial practices, and cremation; and speculates with comfortingly loopy humor about various afterlife scenarios. The colored line drawings, which feature dialogue balloons, are welcoming and unpretentious, making an invariably distressing subject approachable. From HORN BOOK Spring 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An unsentimental but misguided rumination on death, illustrated with simple ink and colored-pencil line drawings of deceased pets and people--nearly all of the latter naked and, plainly, male. Veering off on occasional side jaunts to bring in ghosts, Mexican Day of the Dead customs, and the like, Stalfelt (The Love Book, not reviewed) races past death's physical changes--"Flowers can get brown and dried out when they die . . . people usually get pale and a bit more yellow than normal"--and its most common causes, various views on what happens afterward, funerals, memorials, wills, and euphemisms from "bit the dust" to "happy hunting grounds," then finishes with a sprightly rhyme. Though this may, as the blurb has it, make death "thinkable" for children, its sexist language ("People used to take their best things with them into the grave . . . they could even take their wife or horse . . .") and derisive treatment of non-Christian views of the afterlife ("What if you became a hot dog???") signal a less than sensitive approach to an already disturbing, unfathomable topic. (Picture book/nonfiction? 7-9)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
