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Anna's Heaven (2014)

by Stian Hole(Favorite Author)

4.24 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0802854419 (ISBN13: 9780802854414)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

review 1: Anna's Heaven is about a little girl waiting with her father to go to her mother's funeral. The book begins with her father admonishing her to, "Hurry up!" However, as the book progresses the father allows himself to follow Anna through her daydreams until she is ready to go to the funeral. It is difficult to find books about children dealing with a mother's death and this book is one of the best. Anna is a dreamy girl who talks about her mother's death in an indirect manner, typical of young children. Anna's jumbled feelings are demonstrated in the lively, boldly colored, remarkable illustrations leaping throughout the pages. Her need to question God is explored in her fanciful questions and innocently wise comments. The language in Anna's Heaven is beautiful. ( "Mom said... more birds were flowers that could fly, and that the sunflower was the sun's little sister," Anna says. "Today there's someone in the sky sending down nails. That's not right, is it?" Dad says. "No," Anna whispers, "but tomorrow there might be strawberries with honey." ) Though the story is sad, the conversation between father and daughter is beautiful. The illustrations are remarkable. This is a book that would definitely be worth keeping in mind. Just in case it needs sharing with someone special.
review 2: Anna's Heaven by Stian Hole is a surreal tale about a young girl's journey to help herself accept her mother's death and help her father find happiness. Hole turns his literary world into a beautifully fantastic universe. With each turn of the page the reader discovers something new and strangely captivating. Some spreads show Anna's plain reality, and others are full of objects and beings from "the other side of the mirror." Hole's work is delicate and detailed while still seeming cheerful and light. The father is clearly mourning the death of his wife/Anna's mother with his black suit and melancholy speech, and there are pages and pages of the ocean and sky being filled with deceased animals and people, but the colors stay happy and bright. There is a strange juxtaposition between the father (reality) and Anna (dream-like "heaven") while she processes the death of her mother.The entire book is written in dialogue, and I wish that wasn't the case. The text is strange, but it is disappointing compared to the illustrations. I wish it had something more. I understand limiting the amount of text so that the pictures would be what readers focus on, but I think having a little more would help the entire story.This story is almost too strange, in the way that it almost doesn't make sense (not in the good way like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but in the "uh, I have no idea what's going on at all" kind of way). There's no plot and nothing really happens; the whole book is simply the child and parent speaking to one another.I am a fan of the illustrations, but extremely disappointed in the text. I would expect more from an illustrator that can create such impressive art. less

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