Life and I: A Story About Death

Rosy-cheeked and wrapped in blue, with a flower in her hair, Death rides a pink bike. Death, a green-eyed little girl in this pastel world, visits small animals with soft fur and big animals with sharp teeth. She lingers with a kindly grandmother as they knit one last scarf together. She wanders through surroundings of gentle beauty and she tells us who she is.

For parents of children facing the loss of a family member, a friend, or a pet, this book finds words to express what is often so difficult to explain. It ends with such a feeling of uplift and acceptance that readers of any age will turn the last page with a smile and a tear.

Author Elisabeth Helland Larsen and illustrator Marine Schneider weave a tapestry out of direct, poetic words and hand-drawn pictures to give voice to emotions that are moving, real, and most of all, honest.

A native of Norway, Elisabeth Helland Larsen studied theater in Paris at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and children’s literature in Oslo at the Norsk Barnebokinstitutt. She has worked as a clown for more than 20 years in hospitals and hospices, as well as refugee camps, circuses, and theaters. Her experiences with children there are reflected in her sensitive stories.

Marine Schneider has drawn since she could hold a pencil. The young Belgian illustrator just received her degree from the LUCA School of Arts. Life and I is her children’s book debut.