Apprentice yourself to the curve of your own disappearance (quoted in Ostaseski 2017, p. 27).
(David Whyte).
Abstract
Picture books are important mediums for transformation and learning. They offer both the tools and the truths for readers to critically engage with important issues, such as the reality of death and dying. The primary purpose of this study is to inspire engaged and deliberate conversations about mortality, dying, and grief in the context of picture books. I also present a new methodology of analyzing the cover arts of death-themed picture books. This method is influenced by M. M. Bakhtin’s (The dialogic imagination: four essays. The University of Texas Press, Austin, 2006) dialogism and Lois Rosenblatt’s (The reader, the text, the poem: the transactional theory of the literary work. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1978) work on transactional theory and aesthetic reading. In order to gain a deeper understanding of how death is portrayed/represented through visual or linguistic expressions, my inquiry centers on the following questions: In what ways do artists/illustrators use text and images to depict death on the covers/jacket design of picture books related to death and dying? Through a dialogic, aesthetic engagement with death-themed book covers, what meaning can arise related to death as a phenomenon and a social construct? Also, how this meaning can lead to individual transformation and new ways picture books are used in personal and educational settings?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ariès, Philippe. (1974). Western Attitudes Toward Death: from the middle ages to the present. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bakhtin, Mikhail, M. (2006). The dialogic imagination: four essays. Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press.
Barthelmess, Thom. (2013). What makes a good picture book about loss? Horn Book Magazine, 89(5), 56–62.
Barrett, Terry. (2002). Interpreting Art: Reflecting, Wondering, and Responding. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill Education.
Barrett, Clark H., and Behne, Tanya. (2005): Children’s understanding of death as the cessation of agency: A test using sleep versus death. Cognition, 96, 93–108.
Becker, Ernest. (1973). The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press.
Boss, Pauline. (1999). Ambiguous Loss: Learning to live with unresolved grief. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bosticco, Cecila, and Thompson, Teresa. (2005). The role of communication and story telling in the family grieving system. The Journal of Family Communication, 5, 255–278.
Brisson, Pat, and Jorisch, Stephane. (2006). I Remember Miss Perry. New York: Dial.
Brown, Mark T., and Brown, Laurene K. (1998). When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death. Logan: Turtleback Books.
Castelluci, Cecil, and Denos, Julia. (2010). Grandma’s Gloves. Somerville: Candlewick.
Clement, Lesley. (2013). Death and the empathic embrace in four contemporary picture books. Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, 51(4), 1–10.
Cobb, Rebaca. (2013). Missing Mommy. A Book About Bereavement. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Cohn, Janice, and Owens, Gail. (1987). I Had a Friend Named Peter: Talking to Children About the Death of a Friend. New York: William Morrow & Company.
Collins, Suzanne. (2008). The Hunger Games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Collins, Suzanne, and Proimos, James. (2013). Year of the Jungle: Memories from the Home Front. New York: Scholastic press.
Corr, Charles A., and Corr, Donna M. (1997). Death & dying, life & living. 2nd ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Danko-McGhee, Katherina, and Slutsky, Ruslan. (2011). Judging a book by its cover: Preschool children’s aesthetic preferences for picture books. International Journal of Education Through Art, 7(2), 171–185.
dePaola, Tomie. (2000). Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs. New York: Puffin Books.
Ellis, Carolyn. (2018). Final Negotiations: A Story of Love, Loss, and Chronic Illness. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Faulkner, Kate, W. (1997). Dealing with Death: Talking about Death with a Dying Child. The American Journal of Nursing, 97(6), 64–69.
Faustino, Lisa R., and Andrews, Benny. (2001). The Hickory Chair. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books.
Fletcher, Ralph, and Stevenson, Harvey. (2000). Grandpa Never Lies. Boston: Clarion Books.
Gliori, Debi, and Durant, Alan. (2013). Always and Forever. London: Random House Children’s Publishers.
Gutiérrez, Isabel T., Miller, Peggy. J., Rosengren, Karl. S., and Schein, Steve. S. (2014). Affective dimensions of death: Children’s books, questions, and understandings. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(1), 43–61.
Hanson, Warren. (1997). The Next Place. Golden Valley: Waldman House Press.
Haynes, Max. (2000). Grandma’s Gone To Live In The Stars. Park Ridge: Albert Whitman & Company.
Hollindale, Peter, and Sutherland, Zena. (1995). Internationalism, fantasy, and realism: 1945–1970. In P. Hunt (Ed.) Children’s literature: An illustrated history. Oxford, UK: Oxford.
Jalongo, Mary Renck. (2004). Young Children and Picture Books. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Joosse, Barbara, and Potter, Giselle. (2001). Ghost Wings. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Kafka, Franz. (2016). Letters to Friends, Family and Editors. New York, NY: Schocken Books.
Krishnaswami, Uma, and Johnson, Layne. (2007). Remembering Grandpa. Honesdale: Boyds Mills Press.
Lazar, Alice, and Torney-Purta, Judith. (1991). The development of the subconcepts of death in young children: A short-term longitudinal study. Child Development, 62, 1321–1333.
Londner, Renee, and Aviles, Martha. (2013). Stones for Grandpa. Minneapolis: Kar-Ben Publishing.
London, Jonathan, and Long, Sylvia. (1994). Liplap’s Wish. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Maagero, Eva, and Ostbye, Guri L. (2012). Do worlds have corners? When children’s picture books invite philosophical questions. Children’s Literature in Education, 43(4), 323–337.
Madern, Eric, and Hess, Paul. (2005). Death in a Nut. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
Marcus, Leonard, S. (2012). Face Out: Picture Book Covers. Horn Book Magazine, 88(6), 43–46.
Mathers, Petra. (2014). When Aunt Mattie got her wings. San Diego: Beach Lane Books.
Mendelsund, Peter. (2014). What we see when we read. New York: Vintage.
Mewburn, Kyle, and Driscoll, Rachel. (2009). Old Hu-Hu. Auckland: Scholastic New Zealand.
Moundlic, Charlotte and Tallec, Oliver. (2011). The Scar. Somerville: Candlewick.
Oliver, Mary. (1992). New and Selected Poems: Volume One. Boston: Beacon Press.
Ostaseski, Frank. (2017). The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. New York: Flatiron Books.
Poling, Deveraux A., and Hupp, Julie M. (2008). Death sentences: A content analysis of children’s death literature. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 169(2), 165–176.
Rosenblatt, Louise M. (2005). Making meaning with texts: Selected essays. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Rosenblatt, Louise M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Sinykin, Sheri C., and Swarner, Kristina. Zayde Comes To Live. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishing.
Rosen, Michael, and Blake, Quentin. (2005). Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. Somerville: Candlewick.
Roser, Nancy. (2012). Looking, Thinking, Talking, Reading, Writing, Playing…Images. Language Arts, 89(6), 405–414.
Savage, Shari L. (2015). Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl. (cover story). Studies in Art Education, 56(2), 156–167.
Schick, Eleanor. (2000). Mama. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Corp.
Serafini, Frank. (2011). Expanding perspectives for comprehending visual images in multimodal Texts: to expand students’ interpretive repertoires, teachers need to extend their understanding of perspectives, theories, and practices used to comprehend visual images, graphic design, and multimodal texts. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, (5), 342–350.
Shriver, Maria, and Speidel, Sandra. (2007). What’s Heaven?. New York: Golden Books.
Sontag, Susan. (2001). Against interpretation, and other essays. New York, N.Y.: Picador.
Speece, Mark W., and Brent, Sandor B. (1984). Children’s understanding of death: A review of three components of a death concept. Child Development, 55, 1671–1686.
Tangvals, Christine H., and Kennedy, Anne. (2012). Someone I Love Died. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Publishing Company.
Thomas, Christine. (2006). My Liddle Buddy Jake. Atlanta: Brittany’s Books.
Thomas, Jane R., and Sewall, Marcia. (1990). Saying Good-bye to Grandma. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Virginia Slaughter, and Maya Griffiths, (2007). Death Understanding and Fear of Death in Young Children. Clinical Child Psychology And Psychiatry 12(4), 525–535.
Willis, Clarissa A. (2002). The grieving process in children: Strategies for understanding, educating, and reconciling children’s perception of death. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29(4), 221–227.
Wiseman, Angela A. (2013). Summer’s end and sad goodbyes: Children’s picturebooks about death and dying. Children’s Literature In Education, 44(1), 1–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Csaba Osvath is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of South Florida, pursuing literacy studies with a special focus on qualitative methods and arts-based research. His research explores the epistemological and pedagogical roles/functions of art making in the context of literacy education. His current project is the creation of a mixed media collage technique and a methodological artistic process for knowledge acquisition and knowledge production in educational settings.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Osvath, C. Uncovering Death: A Dialogic, Aesthetic Engagement with the Covers of Death-Themed Picture Books. Child Lit Educ 52, 68–87 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09399-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09399-5