All the Dear Little Animals

by Ulf Nilsson, Eva Eriksson (Illustrator)

Overview

"One summer's day we started a business called Funerals Ltd., to help all the poor dead animals in the world. Esther did the digging, I wrote the poems, and Esther's little brother, Puttie, cried."

Early readers will love the dry humor and wonderfully rounded story of All the Dear Little Animals. Nilsson perfectly captures the child's perspective, balancing compassion and humor. This is a very funny story about a topic that touches all of us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781776572892
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Pages:	72
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Lexile:	550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Ulf Nilsson (1948-2021) was a celebrated Swedish children's author, who wrote more than 100 books for all ages, winning numerous awards and translated into over a dozen languages.

Eva Eriksson is one of the world's great illustrators. Her awards include the Astrid Lindgren Prize and the August Award and she is consistently nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/20/2020

Nilsson and Eriksson bring a whiff of Scandinavian noir to this lengthy, small-format picture book. After an encounter with “something sad and tragic”—a dead bee—Esther buries the insect, then makes a pronouncement. “Someone unselfish must make sure all these dead things get buried,” she tells the narrator, a boy in a plaid shirt. So they start a business, Funerals Ltd. The boy is a reluctant undertaker but a good writer (“There are lots of words inside me”), and he contributes a short poem for each funeral (“Farewell Harold, wee Harold so bold”). Esther solicits new business, sometimes with startling cynicism—“We will never forget him. That’s what we’re paid for!” Deftly translated by Marshall, the text laces honest consideration of a difficult subject with winningly mordant humor. Lindgren Award–winner Eriksson’s (My Heart Is Laughing) lightly penned images of the children burying animals are the visual equivalent of Nilsson’s offhand tone. It’s only after the children tackle logistical matters—touching corpses, how to explain death to Esther’s little brother, whether the gravestones need proper names—that a moment of real tenderness occurs: they witness a blackbird’s sudden death, and even brusque Esther is moved. A sly, thoughtful, many-layered story. Ages 7–11. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"First published in Sweden, the book has a childlike tone that is reverent, winsome, and matter-of-fact. . . . [T]his pitch-perfect book shows children dealing with death in their own ways and then moving on."—starred, Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 2019-12-08
Three children spend a day burying dead creatures in this New Zealand import originally from Sweden.

This perspicacious observation of how children copy adult behavior in their play is also a hilarious spoof on the overtly pious funeral industry. Esther, her younger brother Puttie, and the unnamed narrator have "nothing to do" one day. Finding a dead bumblebee, Esther declares they must bury it, but the narrator is leery of touching it, being afraid of death, and so instead offers to write the poem: "A dear little life in the hand / Suddenly gone, deep in the sand." Little Puttie, completely in the dark about death, is upset when Esther tells him he too will die when he is "an old man." "But Mummy and Daddy will be so sad," he whimpers. After the success of the bumblebee interment, Esther is enthused about burying "all the poor dead animals," and the children start "Funerals Ltd.," phoning neighbors for dead pets and scouring the bushes and byways for roadkill. The story cleverly—and tenderly—pivots near its end, giving it a touching depth (with a twist). Eriksson's keenly observed illustrations include full-page and double-page spreads as well as spots, and they are as wickedly hilarious as the text in their understated expressions and details. An abundance of soft springlike colors present a visually humorous juxtaposition to the morbid theme. The children are illustrated as white.

Dark and hilarious. (Fiction. 7-12)

Kirkus Reviews