Translation: "Deathly simple" age 8+
Extremely beautiful! It brought tears to my eyes, it made me reflect, in the end I closed the book with a smile. Death and dying are largely taboo subjects. Bette wrote dozens of small and large verses all referring to death.
All of a sudden death becomes part of life, as it always has been. Not only for us adults but also for children. Subtile, light, playful but yet straight to the point.
Dying can be painful or a bliss for the person who is dying. For those who are left behind, how to deal with our feelings when people pass away? What is dying anyway? The verses are written in a way children can relate to it.
Some miss their grandpa, mother, dad, pet or a friend. Bette doesn't cover sorrow, pain, sadness or fear. There is nothing we known for certain about death. The verse about "fear" : 'Ik ben niet bang om dood te gaan, de dood is maar voor even, het lijkt misschien een eeuwigheid, maar in het graf bestaat geen tijd. De tijd hoort bij het leven.'I'm not afraid to die, death is just a moment, although it looks like eternity, but in the grave no time exist. Time belongs to life." (free translation)
The illustrations are fabulous, they are a doorway between the imagination of the reader and the verses.
Some pages are cut in half but the illustration continues on the next page. Where one finishes the next begins or the other way around, maybe there is no beginning nor end, just like life and death, They're just part of each other which makes this book complete.
Extremely beautiful! It brought tears to my eyes, it made me reflect, in the end I closed the book with a smile. Death and dying are largely taboo subjects. Bette wrote dozens of small and large verses all referring to death.
All of a sudden death becomes part of life, as it always has been. Not only for us adults but also for children. Subtile, light, playful but yet straight to the point.
Dying can be painful or a bliss for the person who is dying. For those who are left behind, how to deal with our feelings when people pass away? What is dying anyway? The verses are written in a way children can relate to it.
Some miss their grandpa, mother, dad, pet or a friend. Bette doesn't cover sorrow, pain, sadness or fear. There is nothing we known for certain about death. The verse about "fear" : 'Ik ben niet bang om dood te gaan, de dood is maar voor even, het lijkt misschien een eeuwigheid, maar in het graf bestaat geen tijd. De tijd hoort bij het leven.'I'm not afraid to die, death is just a moment, although it looks like eternity, but in the grave no time exist. Time belongs to life." (free translation)
The illustrations are fabulous, they are a doorway between the imagination of the reader and the verses.
Some pages are cut in half but the illustration continues on the next page. Where one finishes the next begins or the other way around, maybe there is no beginning nor end, just like life and death, They're just part of each other which makes this book complete.