A Last Goodbye - by Elin Kelsey (Hardcover)

About the Book

A compassionate exploration of all the ways animals, including humans, grieve

Book Synopsis

How do we say goodbye to a loved one after they die? This book broaches a difficult topic in a heartfelt way by exploring the beauty in how animals mourn. From elephants to whales, parrots to bonobos, and lemurs to humans, we all have rituals to commemorate our loved ones and to lift each other up in difficult times.

New from the award-winning team behind You Are Stardust, Wild Ideas, and You Are Never Alone, this book gently recognizes death as a natural part of life for humans and all animals. Written in spare, poetic language and illustrated with stunning dioramas, it draws out our similarities with other animals as it honors the universal experience of mourning. The touching and uplifting book ends on a hopeful note, showing how we live on both in memories and on the planet, our bodies nourishing new life in the Earth and the oceans.

Review Quotes

"A lovely piece of enhanced nonfiction... Thoughtful and eye-opening."-- "School Library Journal"

"Gentle and reassuring, with amazing artwork once again, this is a book that is as hopeful as it is beautiful."-- "Sal's Fiction Addiction"

"Kim's absorbing dioramas create tender scenes of community, intimacy, and loss...readers will appreciate the matter-of-fact, never emotionally prescriptive look at creatures' mourning behaviors."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Scientifically sound and philosophically profound."-- "Kirkus Reviews - STARRED REVIEW"

"The book adopts a gentle tone and establishes a mood of reverence and respect through Elin Kelsey's written text and Soyeon Kim's attractive artwork."-- "Canadian Review of Materials"

"This stunning picture book is unusual in many ways, from its unique and seldom-explored topic to the illustrations done in collage and created using dioramas."-- "Booklist"

About the Author

ELIN KELSEY, PhD, is an award-winning author and a leading spokesperson for hope and the environment. In 2014, she co-created #OceanOptimism, a twitter campaign to crowd-source and share ocean conservation successes which has reached 90 million users to date. She frequently works on projects with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Stanford University and the University of Victoria and is passionate about engaging kids in hopeful, science-based, environmental solutions. See more at www.elinkelseyandcompany.com.
SOYEON KIM is a Toronto-based, Korean-born artist who specializes in fine sketching and painting techniques to create three-dimensional dioramas. She is a graduate of the Visual Arts and Education programs at York University.