Illustrator: Charlotte Pardi
Enchanted Lion Books (2016)When it comes to young children, it is often difficult to find books that are both interactive and educational, while also having the ability to keep the attention of a child all the way until the very end. Picture books have this ability because they combine illustrations and short text to create a story that is very appealing to young readers. One picture book that does this successfully is Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved. This book is about four young children who live with their beloved grandmother. Aware that their grandmother is very sick, the children make a pact to keep death from taking her away by giving him coffee all through the night. Despite their efforts, death still comes and the children realize that their time with their grandmother is coming to an end. Death shares a story with the children that teaches them the value of life and death, and the importance of being able to say goodbye. After their grandmother dies, the children continue to carry with them Death?s advice as their hearts grieve and cry, but never break. Cry, Heart, But Never Break has been chosen to be evaluated as a picture book because of the text, the illustrations, and the overall pace of the book.
One of the reasons that this picture book is successful is the simple, yet complex text. The text is simple in the fact that there are only 28 pages in the book and most of the pages are covered with illustrations, so the text on each page is short and sweet. This is a very essential element in a picture book because lengthy descriptions and sentences with too much detail can cause young readers to lose interest due to the overload of information. Also, the words in this book are simple, but hold so much meaning and depth. The author takes something as complex as death and scales it down to where it is easy for young readers to understand, while still being direct and realistic. Overall, the sentences in the book are short and sweet in order to make it easier for younger children to read and understand.
Another reason that this picture book is successful is the excellent illustrations that fill each page. The illustrations in this book are so successful because they enrich, not lessen, the author's work. The book pairs grief and sorrow with joy and delight and uses the contrast of the dark to bright water colors to do this. Also, each page is filled up in its entirety with detailed illustrations. This is also a very essential element in a picture book because the reader can look to the illustrations to help guide them on what they are reading. An example of this can be seen on the very first page as the children's house takes up almost the entire first page. Overall, the illustrations are large, colorful, detailed, and add a whole new element of meaning to the story.
The last reason that this picture book is successful is the overall pace of the book. The pages seem to turn in all of the right places as the author exposes the reader to small, suspenseful segments of text at a time, but still includes a great amount of detail so that the child is still engaged and interested in the story. An example of this can be seen on pages 2, 3, and 5 when the author ends each segment of text with, "Now she had a visitor", "stared straight at death", and "death had come for her and that time was short". Each page ends with suspense and leads the reader to wonder what is going to happen next and want to keep turning the pages. This is essential for young readers because they are inexperienced listeners and have shorter attention spans, so too much text in one segment or on one page can cause the child to lose attentiveness. Overall, the story flow smoothly, with no confusing transitions, or awkward sentence structures.
Overall, Cry, Heart, But Never Break has many elements that makes it such a successful picture book. These elements include the simple, yet complex text, the compelling illustrations, and the overall natural flow of the book. All of these elements work together to create a wonderfully crafted picture book that teaches children a huge life lesson about how the profound sadness of loss is to be felt, rather than resisted. This is definitely a book that any current or future early childhood educator should have on the bookshelf in their classroom!
Review by Elizabeth Petrella
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