He offers no answers to Duck’s questions other than he is responsible for death alone, not what happens afterwards. The lighting, operated by Jason Longstaff and created by Nigel Percy, is a further element in making the play work so effectively.

Expanding on the Instagram video from which this is spun, the simply drawn art shows one button-eyed, pale-skinned child with a piece of chalk drawing and redrawing an increasingly large circle that first lets in a sibling and their interracial parents, then relatives (including another interracial couple), then larger groups (diverse in age and skin tone, including one child in a wheelchair and one wearing a hijab). My response after this reading of the book focused on the kindness of Duck to Death, offering warmth when he was cold and opportunity to play. There is something infinitely tender in the way Death strokes her ruffled feathers into place, lifts her body and places it gently in the river, watching as she drifts off into the distance.New Fall 2022: WOW Stories, Global Literacy Communities: Selecting and Discussing Global Literature. Donald Barthelme’s story, “The School,” takes on an untraditional way of explaining life and the meaning behind it. It’s a gorgeous depiction of Death meeting a duck and being a friend and kind guide before the end of her life. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait. A caveat, though: straightforward as it appears, Duck, Death and the Tulip raises complex ideas, which need to be given discussion space.

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. However, the calm, caring demeanor in which Death treats the Duck both in life and finally in Death makes the character more realistic than frightening. We then talked about what happens when you die, whether the body’s death means the end of all consciousness and whether it’s possible that there are planes of existence beyond our ability to imagine. The reader is simultaneously desensitized to the gravity of subject matter and given permission to consider death and dying without the normal societal negative stigma associated with the subject.Though the duck’s peaceful passing at the end of the story may upset some young viewers, as with the book it’s based on, it may be a prompt for curiosity, conversation, and understanding. Death is with the duck from page 1, shown as a skeleton face thing but clothed in beige colours ( not your black grim reaper ). Nearly a century later, John Updike echoed this sentiment: “Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. The second thing the reader notices is the extraordinary courage of the book – the uncluttered nature of its graphics, the uncompromising excellence of its design and production and its honest message that `Death is always with us’. At the start I feel the volume is a little high but this is rectified and we are able to hear Duck’s soft Scottish burr.

The Duck goes about its day, discovering and eating a Snail (of which no more is heard), having a snooze, discovering a Tulip whose aroma is ecstasy-inducing … But it is a rather endearing, skull-headed little man – Death – who picks it. The most conflicting part of all for me: this is a children’s picture book…It’s not something I like to make a habit of thinking about, but brushing the idea of dying to one side until it’s suddenly brought into sharp focus can’t be the way to go. The axolotl is lonely, immobile, seemingly lacking life, inexpressive, and unable to communicate, all things we associate with death. In a nutshell, it is about Death sent by God to summon Everyman, who is not at all ready, spiritually, to meet his Maker.

As a harbinger of Duck’s fate and as a simple wreath for Duck as she sets of on her journey on the great river. They have won many awards, including the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1993 and 2003, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration in 2006. In 2011, director Andrea Simon released a short film of the same name; in her version, two young sisters cope with the death of their mother by reading the book. Erlbruch’s style tends towards the minimalist: his favourite technique a combination of drawing and collage.