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As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been struck by the number of Swedish books for children I’ve found in translation which are about death. Whilst researching my post about Swedish picture books in translation I came across two books that I felt were so very lovely I had to give them their own post.
Both written by Ulf Nilsson – All the dear little animals (illustrated by Eva Eriksson) and Goodbye Mr Muffin (illustrated by Anna-Clara Tidholm) are two gentle and powerful picture books about a subject sometimes taboo for children, death.
All the dear little animals is a marvellous, sensitive, funny, thoughtful book. A group of young children, bored one day, set up their own company, Funerals Ltd, to bury any and all the dead animals they can find. It starts with a bee they find in the windowsill, but before long they’ve got a dead hamster called Harold from a neighbour, three fish from a bag in the fridge, a squashed hedgehog from the road and more.
Reading All the dear little animals
All the animals are laid to rest with great care and kindness. One of the children, who is scared of touching the dead animals, finds his forte is writing hymns for them, whilst they all enjoy making crosses, painting gravestones and planting flowers. Over the course of the day they create a beautiful cemetery in their secret clearing at the bottom of the secret path.
As the day draws to a close and they are heading home, they witness death actually taking place – a bird flies into a window and with a flutter and a shudder dies at their feet. The game suddenly takes on a whole new meaning, and as they give the blackbird their most beautiful send off “sadness lay like a black quilt over the clearing“.
Photo: Tim Green aka atoach
I cannot recommend this book enough. Yes, it is about death, but it is so full of kindness, thoughtfulness and humour that the topic isn’t frightening or disturbing. Most picture books I’ve read about death I probably wouldn’t introduce to kids unless they were in the process of grieving (cf this round up on death themed picture books I
Thanks for those reviews.
I hope I can source those books – they’re probably not in Australia though.
Hi MakemindMid-Century,
Both these books are (also) published by Gecko Press in New Zealand so hopefully that ups the chance of you being able to get hold of them in Australis.
I’m glad you have returned to this topic. My father past away just before Christmas and we were quite unsure of how to prepare the kids. I returned and read your earlier post and eventually purchased “Turtle Girl” that one of your readers recommended and another book called “Mrs Rumphius’ Garden” Reading them with my eldest I was amazed at two things – firstly how matter of factly she responded to the new concept of death and also how much clarity and comfort the books brought to me.