This book is for older elementary students. This is also a happier version of book of describing heaven. The main character Anna is a curious cat and she has a lot of questions about everything. This book can also help children create more questions of the world to see if anyone can clarify them. ( )

“Do you think that there’s anything on the other side of the mirror?” Anna questions her restless father about her mother’s death. Reflections (her mother’s ghost image follows the mountain’s contours, a teapot mirrors an elephant, Anna and father’s pond reflections) and the text’s opening palindromes underscore the mystery of dying. After Anna plunges into the sky, her grieving father follows her through fanciful wonderings about her mother’s whereabouts and doings. Soon they emerge, Anna ready to accompany him to church. Hole’s surreal photocollaged images haunt from opening endpapers where nails rain down until they accede to raining strawberries at the back. ( )

“Do you think that there’s anything on the other side of the mirror?” Anna questions her restless father about her mother’s death. Reflections (her mother’s ghost image follows the mountain’s contours, a teapot mirrors an elephant, Anna and father’s pond reflections) and the text’s opening palindromes underscore the mystery of dying. After Anna plunges into the sky, her grieving father follows her through fanciful wonderings about her mother’s whereabouts and doings. Soon they emerge, Anna ready to accompany him to church. Hole’s surreal photocollaged images haunt from opening endpapers where nails rain down until they accede to raining strawberries at the back. ( )

Un très beau livre, en images et en texte qui traite très subtilement de comment confronter un départ sans jamais en parler... comment retomber sur ses pieds. Je pense que la traduction est très réfléchie et réussie.

Il y a le ciel, le paradis, Dieu, les souvenirs, des émotions, des questions qui doivent rester sans réponse. Des jeux de mots, des jeux d'images (merveilleuses).

"Pourquoi [Dieu] n'arrive pas à inventer un système qui permettrait à une douleur de se transformer en douceur?"

J'ai finalement compris la signification de l'averse de clous qui tombe du ciel. Je pense à Bob Dylan: It's a hard rain's gonna fall. ( )

This book was so strange, like really strange, but I kind of loved it! When Anna is questioning God's abilities after her mother passes she wishes there was a way to the other side. Her and her dad go into the mysterious hole and arrive in what seems to be heaven. There they see all of their deceased loved ones and that is when the story gets weird. The illustration are almost disturbing but really great at the same time. From this experience, Anna and her father finally feel at peace and go back home. I do not think I would put this in my classroom but I definitely would have this at home for my kids. ( )