Duck, Death and the Tulip

(Hardback)

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Description

From award-winning author and illustrator, Wolf Erlbruch, comes one of the worlds best childrens books about grief and loss.

In a curiously heart-warming and elegantly illustrated story, a duck strikes up an unlikely friendship with Death. Duck and Death play together and discuss big questions. Death, dressed in a dressing gown and slippers, is sympathetic and kind and will be ducks companion until the end.

Im cold, she said one evening. Will you warm me a little
Snowflakes drifted down.
Something had happened. Death looked at the duck.
Shed stopped breathing. She lay quite still.

Explaining the topic of death in a way that is honest, lightly philosophical and with gentle humour, this enchanting book has been translated into multiple languages, adapted into an animated movie and short film and performed on stages worldwide.

Wolf Erlbruch received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2006 and was the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2017.

• • Tender and direct, it is an excellent tool for helping to explain and talk about death, dying and bereavement with children

• • Loved by adults and children, parents and grandparents, also suitable for schools, grief centres and counsellors

Das auergewhnliche Buch 2022 (The Extraordinary Book 2022) Award.

Reviews

"The most extraordinary picture book Ive seen in many a year. A duck becomes friends with Death, and its the most natural thing in the world. Trust me, adults get far more weirded out by this book than children ever do. Amazing." -- Patrick Ness, Time Out London
"The gold standard of picture books about death is Duck, Death and the Tulip. Its hard to describe how this extraordinarily tender book manages to be both heartbreaking and comforting, but it does." -- New York Times (US)
"The most moving book Ive read this year is the German picture book Duck, Death and The Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch, about the strange, uneasy friendship." -- Meg Rosoff, The Financial Times US)

Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch is a superb picture book from Germany, that tells a gentle story of the relationship between Death and a duck. Death is portrayed as a sympathetic figure in a dressing gown who is with us all the time, but who only comes into Ducks consciousness towards the end of his life. It is warm, poignant and witty.

The German children's book author and illustrator Wolf Erlbruch offers a wonderfully warm and assuring answer in Duck, Death and the Tulip - a marvelous addition to the handful of intelligent and imaginative children's books about death and loss.

Author Bio

Wolf Erlbruch is a celebrated and original German author and illustrator. He has received many awards, including the 2006 Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration.