Christopher Raschka

Easy-to-read text reveals that dying is hard work, for the old and especially the young, and how good it is that so many people help when a person dies, from medical staff to clergy and friends to family members.

The purple balloon

renee badenoch

"No one likes to talk about dying.

It's hard work. 

Dying is hard work." 

I once had a professor describe picture books as vaccinations. The small exposure to sad ideas in them helps inoculate us when we face heavier, harder ideas in real life. Not that those books make the pain we experience less, but they teach us how to experience pain, and navigate pain. I loved Chris Raschka's The Purple Balloon as a soft, simple text talking plainly about death and dying (particularly when the person we love is young), and reaching out to other people to help us when we're sad over death. Books about death are necessary and good for young readers, and this one is especially well-written.

The purple balloon

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