Cry, heart, but never break

Glenn Ringtved, 1968-

Book - 2016

When Death comes to take their grandmother away, he shares a story with four siblings that helps them realize the value of loss and the importance of being able to say goodbye.

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jE/Ringtved
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Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room jE/Ringtved Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
New York : Enchanted Lion Books 2016.
Language
English
Danish
Main Author
Glenn Ringtved, 1968- (author)
Other Authors
Charlotte Pardi (illustrator), Robert Moulthrop (translator)
Edition
First American edition
Physical Description
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 31 cm
ISBN
9781592701872
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Moody watercolors set a somber tone for this Scandinavian import. Four children live with their ailing grandmother in an isolated house. When a guest in a hooded cloak comes to visit her, they immediately guess his purpose and attempt to delay him with coffee and hospitality. But Death, whose heart beats with a great love of life, gently explains that life and death depend on each other. Who would yearn for day if there were no night? Spare and heartfelt, this book rejects cute euphemisms and questionable allusions to afterlife scenarios in favor of a straightforward depiction of grandmother's peaceful death. The children's sorrow soon transforms into fond memories. The art plays a key role in weaving death into life and vice-versa. Death's black robe is inky and textured, while the children wear brightly-colored shirts and serve coffee from a brilliant turquoise pot. Overcast, gray light becomes yellow sunshine once the children let their grandmother go. This joins books like Bardur Osskarson's Flat Rabbit (2014) in depicting death in a matter-of-fact, never condescending tone to children.--Willey, Paula Copyright 2016 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review

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 hell 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 couldnt 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 grandmothers spirit away, comforting the children with the titular commandment to mourn and to remember, but to go on living. The storys 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 (c) Copyright 2016. 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

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) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.