I hadn't intended for my 2nd blog post to be on such a heavy subject. However, last weekend my family and I had to put Cuddles, our 17 year old Cocker Spaniel down, so this review is my tribute to him.
Losing a loved one is never easy, and it is difficult to explain to children without it being confusing, complicated or incredibly emotional. To me this book is a great source of comfort in a difficult time: its simple ideas and artwork remind me of what I thought Heaven was like a child. I have seen other books on death of pets and instead of being simple, easy to understand and helpful, they are tedious, full of facts and abruptly push the reader into moving on from their loss (As an example, The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst, where the main character tries to come up with 10 good things about his cat Barney who died, and the last thing is that by burying Barney in the backyard he will help the flowers to grow).
The illustrations are done in acrylic, and are purposely made to look as though a child had drawn them. By doing so, the readers are able to relate to the pictures and the story, as it looks like something they might draw or paint if they were asked what "Dog Heaven" might look like.
While admittedly the book does not deal directly with the loss of a pet, its purpose is to offer a small bit of comfort in a time of sadness, and in that Dog Heaven succeeds. This book does its job whether the reader is religious or not; yes there are mentions of God and Heaven, but the purpose isn't to force religion down children's throats. Dog Heaven was written to give children a sense of comfort at the loss of their dog (or cat, there is the companion book Cat Heaven), and that small hope that someday they'll see their beloved pet again is exactly what this book provides.
No comments:
Post a Comment