Thursday, May 9, 2013

[REVIEW] Farfalla: A Story of Loss and Hope

Title: Farfalla: A Story of Loss and Hope
Author: Vanita Oelschlager
Illustrator: Kristin Blackwood
Age Range: 4-8

Blurb: The story is told from the perspective of young Beetle who, with his mother, meets a crowd of caterpillars in the garden they all frequent. Soon Beetle befriends the caterpillars, and he watches in awe as they weave themselves into cocoons. A special one catches his attention and Beetle “adopts” it by making all sorts of plans of what they will do together when it hatches. Later, he watches as the cocoons break open one by one and beautiful butterflies emerge and fly away. But the one he counted on to be his playmate does not.

Review: This was a cute book on a difficult subject - loss.  I really felt for little Beetle when the cocoon containing his would-be-playmate does not open.... I'm sure this book can aid children as well as adults to talk about loss, whether of a friend, family member, pet or someone else.


The language is accessible and direct apart from the "where do we go when we die?" part - but then, no one knows for sure what happens. Considering the delicacy of the subject (kids not taking "I don't know" for an answer, and the reader's own belief), I think it was dealt with in a very good way.
The cute and very fitting artwork was made by Kristin Blackwood (who did the drawings for Oelschlager's A Tale of Two Daddies).


I thoroughly recommend this book.


Rating: 5 bookshelves out of 5.

Disclaimer: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by VanitaBooks for the purpose of a review.

No comments:

Post a Comment