Cry, Heart, But Never Break

February 22, 2016
In this empathic picture book, first published in Denmark in 2001, Death—a towering, robed figure with a beaklike nose and sorrowful expression—solemnly sits with four children around their grandmother’s kitchen table. “Not wishing to frighten the children, the visitor had left his scythe outside the door,” writes Ringtved, providing a clue as to the figure’s tender nature. And yet, he has come for their grandmother, resting upstairs. The children refill Death’s coffee mug in an attempt to postpone the inevitable; while drinking his coffee, Death tells them an allegorical story to illustrate how, like grief and joy or sorrow and delight, life and death cannot exist without the other. “What would life be worth if there were no death?” he asks. Finally, Death goes upstairs, telling the children the words of the title, which offer comfort in the following years. Pardi creates a cozy, lived-in ambiance in her pencil and watercolor art; Death’s almost grandfatherly persona suggests that there is a time to go gently into that good night. Ages 4–8.

February 1, 2016
Death brings both loss and comfort to four children when he comes for their grandmother in this Danish import. In an arresting opening, a small country house with a scythe propped next to the door gives way to a kitchen scene in which Nels, Sonia, Kasper, and little Leah sadly sit at the table with a tall, black-hooded, slump-shouldered figure. Death, it seems, is not cold and remote but has a heart that "beats with a great love of life." He patiently answers Leah's "why does she have to die?" with a parable about the happy marriages of sisters Joy and Delight to brothers Sorrow and Grief: "What would life be worth if there were no death?" When the time comes Death completes the titular command--"Let your tears of grief and sadness help begin new life"--and departs, leaving the children clustered around their grandmother's bed to remember and to live on. Pardi gives the Grim Reaper a kindly aspect, and if the philosophy is a bit abstract, the removal of any parental buffer in this episode reinforces the salutary suggestion that children are resilient enough to be in death's presence without fear. Gentle, wistful reading for times of imminent loss. (Picture book. 6-8)

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July 1, 2016
Death has arrived to claim their beloved grandmother, but four children hope to busy him until dawn, when he'll have to leave empty-handed. At last Death ushers the grandmother's spirit away, comforting the children with the titular commandment to mourn and to remember, but to go on living. This book approaches the taboo subject of the end of life with tenderness and candor.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2016
Four children encounter Death, who has arrived at their country house to claim their beloved grandmother (leaving his scythe outside the door, so as not to frighten them). The children ply him with coffee, hoping to busy him until dawn, when he'll have to leave empty-handed. As the hours pass, Death tells them a story of two brothers, Sorrow and Grief, betrothed to two sisters, Joy and Delight, whose lives together are perfect complements: "Each couldn't live without the other." He compares the pairs to Life and Death, asking, "What would life be worth if there were no death? Who would enjoy the sun if it never rained? Who would yearn for day if there were no night?" At last Death ushers the grandmother's spirit away, comforting the children with the titular commandment to mourn and to remember, but to go on living. The story's theme is the yin-yang balance of darkness and light, and both the text and the imagery share such a balance, with the poetry of the language softening the directness of its message and the somber palette of grays and blues tempering the almost cartoony nature of the figure work. This book approaches the taboo subject of the end of life with tenderness and candor, introducing it as the natural, unavoidable conclusion that it is. thom barthelmess

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)