When a child is dying...
This gentle little book is a place to start talking about death with children. Softly-colored balloons with expressive faces evoke the sorrow, concern and care that family and caregivers show for terminally ill family members. Raschka's first line sets the tone for the book as he states, "Dying is hard work." He explains how family, friends and care workers can help and how important it is to have support. He adds that the impending death of a child is the "only thing harder to talk about than someone old dying--"
Ann Armstong-Dailey's preface note describes the phenomena that many children, facing their own death, will draw a blue or purple balloon "floating free" when they are asked to express their feelings through drawing. The image of this balloon seems to be universal, regardless of cultural or religious background she says. A purple ballon with a calm face is the final image in the book. The balloon's wings ripple below it, suggesting wings as it floats in the air, its face is calm and peaceful.
The book also gives some concrete suggestions that children and their families can do to support someone facing a life ending illness.
This is a must have for school library parent collections. Part of the proceeds from the book's sales benefit Children's Hospice International.
This Book Touched My Heart
Our 13 year old son, Karl, died from a brain tumor in March 2007. We had been battling it for 3 years and were surprised when it started growing again and took his life. He had been active and stayed in school. The entire school and our support community and family were affected by his death. I plan to buy this book for his school. We all need the comfort this book provides.
Death in children
I thought the book would be more about explaining death to a young child but it was actually about death in children. It is a wonderful book, althought it did not meet my needs of explaining the death of a family member to my grandson.
A beautiful book for young readers who lose a loved one.
Like "Tear Soup", "the Purple Balloon", is a powerful book to help us all deal with loss of a loved one. It also has the message for young readers who are dying or have lossed a beloved friend, parent or grand parent.
Simple book for a difficult topic
This book contains simple text and simple illustrations to offer some acknowledement and comfort to terminally ill children, their families, and their friends. The book tells you that talking about dying is hard, but dying itself is even harder. It offers comfort in the thought that dying is made easier by lots of supportive people including doctors, nurses, friends, family, and teachers. There is no talk of heaven or God or what comes next so caregivers of all faiths/beliefs can use this book and add any further discussion that they feel would be appropriate. At the end, some simple suggestions are given for friends of terminally ill children.
While this is not a book that will have a huge audience because of its subject matter, I think it can offer some help to those in this heartbreaking situation when talking about death is so hard.
An added bonus is that a portion of the publisher's proceeds will be donated to Children's Hospice International.
(5 reviews)
