Bibi Dumon Tak, Annemarie van Haeringen - Siens Hemel

It is the illustrator who makes a particular contribution to the beauty of this little book for children. The type is too small relative to the image, and the paper is just a little too stiff, but it is a lovingly made book. The subject is the death of a family pet, and it is depicted in a beautiful succession of pictures: from a black cloud on a white background to a white cloud on a black background. As the book progresses, so Sien the dog comes into view as each spread zooms further back to reveal more of what at first looks like a torn-paper shape of a black body and ends as a line drawing of a small dog on a white cloud. This small, atmospheric book is proof that death, which these days receives more attention than it used to in writing for young people, need not necessarily be writ so large.