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Aerts, Jef

Bigger Than a Dream

40 pp. | Levine Querido | November, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-64614-020-6 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-64614-059-6 $9.99
(2) K-3 Translated by David Colmer. Illustrated by Marit Törnqvist. This gentle, moving (and very beautifully illustrated) Dutch import opens as a young boy sits alone at an enormous but almost empty table, placed across the double-page spread at an uneasy angle. "The first time I heard her I was sitting at the table eating some marzipan." The child, as directed, covers his ears and hears his deceased sister. Later that night, the narrator's sister, glowing brightly against the dark bedroom, tugs her brother out of bed and on a journey to visit the hospital where she died and the cemetery where she is buried. The boy is able, as part of the nighttime visit, to give his sister her first taste of marzipan, and she, through their matter-of-fact conversation, gives him the knowledge that she is not in pain. Both the sadness and the deep love the child carries for his sister are conveyed in Törnqvist's mixed-media art. The colors are soft and inviting: the sky is streaked with blue and purple, the churchyard is a vibrant green hillside. Flocks of birds fly across many pages. In spite of the fundamentally sad subject, this is a story about healing. The final spread shows the narrator sitting at the same enormous table, but this time it is covered with a tablecloth and delicious foods. He no longer feels quite so alone.
Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

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