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madhamster's review
5.0
Grief and sadness do not just stop.
The long tendrils of grief and of missing someone are beautifully shown in this sophisticated picture book.
Deft and subtle touches in the illustrations add to the pathos, melancholia, bittersweetness - and hope.
The long tendrils of grief and of missing someone are beautifully shown in this sophisticated picture book.
Deft and subtle touches in the illustrations add to the pathos, melancholia, bittersweetness - and hope.
gracegreenlaw's review
5.0
Really moving story about a girl called Siobhan who looses her mother when she is 3 and is filled with sadness because she cannot remember what she looks like. It's quite a sad book but comes to a happier conclusion. The book covers lots of big emotions - Siobhan's inability to express her sadness and her jealously of other children who do have mums. I think that maybe this is more of an illustrated text than a picturebook.
melerihaf's review against another edition
4.0
A very sad, but sweet story with a happy ending. It would be a good book for any child who has lost someone, but also for children who haven't, so that they can get a glimpse of what it's like to have someone missing from your life.
ellielabbett's review against another edition
4.0
Doyle explores the effect of losing someone early on in life, the fading memory and the consequences of suppressing feelings. The story has a lovely moving message that those who we love never really leave, we hold them within us.
At times, I felt that this was a slightly ambiguous story and I wondered where the boundary lay between reality and the imagination. Perhaps this is just a reflection upon the reality of death, how someone that no longer exists can feel so real to us.
Importantly, Doyle hones in on the fact that life moves on without a loved one, good things can happen, and relationships can evolve. This is a necessary understanding for all elements of life, not just death.
At times, I felt that this was a slightly ambiguous story and I wondered where the boundary lay between reality and the imagination. Perhaps this is just a reflection upon the reality of death, how someone that no longer exists can feel so real to us.
Importantly, Doyle hones in on the fact that life moves on without a loved one, good things can happen, and relationships can evolve. This is a necessary understanding for all elements of life, not just death.
mat_tobin's review against another edition
2.0
Doyle's first picture book (and I use that term very sweepingly because it's more of a story illustrated) touches on the life of Siobhan, a girl who grows under the shadow of her father's loss of his beloved wife and her anxiety and pain at losing sight of her mother who died when she was three.
Although the meaning behind the story is tender and the fact that her father will not speak about his wife until the end is hard to take, I just felt no chemistry between the words and pictures. Much like Almond's first venture in picturebooks, a part of this is because Doyle writes everything needed and Blackwood, whose watercolours are lovely, is bound to the text - no room for exploring or expanding.
Although the meaning behind the story is tender and the fact that her father will not speak about his wife until the end is hard to take, I just felt no chemistry between the words and pictures. Much like Almond's first venture in picturebooks, a part of this is because Doyle writes everything needed and Blackwood, whose watercolours are lovely, is bound to the text - no room for exploring or expanding.
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