Duck, Death and the Tulip

This picture book helped me come to terms with the grief I feel as an adult caring for aging parents. While this would be suitable for a child coping with loss, it is by no means *just* a children’s book. I’m getting emotional from thinking about it. Highly recommend. And if you’re reading this because you’re dealing with grief yourself, please know that you’re not alone.

I was looking for children's books that introduce death in a way that isn't scary...and that explain death in a completely non-religious way. This book is sweet, easily understood, and puts a whole new light on death as something that eventually just happens.

I bought this ahead of taking my 4 year old to a children's play adaptation of the book. The two worked well together, the play having a light hearted take on the book (death is much scarier as drawn than as portrayed in the play). My daughter enjoys things that are a little scary but a friend said the illustrations would be too scary for her daughter. My daughter has been curious about death as she was named for my grandmother who died at the age of 99 when my daughter was 2, so this book formed part of an ongoing dialogue on life and death that we've had for years due to her awareness of death from experiencing my grandmother being alive and then...not. If you have a child already curious about death, I would recommend this, it's also non-religious and does not include a concept of "god" and, while raised, leaves the question of an afterlife unanswered.

Duck, Death and the Tulip is an understated, elegant children's book about death. Personifying death as younger children do, this book leads the reader through a gentle conversation on the nature of death, depicting it not as a malicious creature but as a fact of life. Death itself wears a housecoat and slippers, and Duck is impressively expressive in simple turns of the head or facial expressions. I haven't had the chance to read this with a child, but rather purchased it to share with my Children's Literature class. Based on the research, this book would be appropriate for children around 8, as this is the age when they begin to see death not as an entity, but as an unavoidable event which they have many questions about. This book offers a delicate way to start that conversation, and unlike many other books of its genre, it doesn't center the story around a sick grandparent or pet.

This was my last gift to my mother as she lay dying. She loved it! Said that the drawings were wonderful. I’m so grateful to the author & illustrator. You done good.

I am subscribed to a newsletter off BrainPickings.com (check them out) where they mention books to read, notable writers, and children's books. I was instantly drawn to this book and I knew right then and there I was meant to read it. It is a children's book. Large print, large photos, simple, concise. If I read it in silence, I am okay. But if I read it aloud I find myself tearing up and crying at the end. It is a wonderful, special book. I am so blessed to have this on my bookshelf, ready to read and remind myself at any time just how precious this life is to experience the divine.

Had to read it through several times before the subtlety and impact and images were pleasantly with me and thought provoking

Great children’s story about death. I love the art and representation of death and the process of dying, and how it doesn’t film death in euphemisms. It shows kindness and generosity and friendship. Death doesn’t have any answers about death.After my mom died, I read this story for myself. I felt better because it didn’t gloss slickly about an important transition.