I wanted to review this book because of how much I love the beautiful book "You are Stardust" by the same author. I wasn't disappointed! Elin Kelsey works her magic once again in this one. The artwork is both peaceful and calming as the text describes animals and how they mourn when a loved one dies. I would recommend this to any librarian looking for a book to explain or comfort a child after a confusing loss of a loved one. Sure to be another award winner!

If you have ever had to navigate the death of a loved one with your children you know it can be so difficult to find the right way to talk to them, to make them feel safe, to make them feel comforted even when, as adults, we are also grieving.

Thankfully there are incredible authors who are writing some of the most beautiful books to help you navigate these difficult times. A Last Goodbye by Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim is a new, completely wonderful book to share with your family at such a time. Carefully researched, Elin Kelsey talked to scientists, watched video and explored all of the ways all different animals experience grief. From elephants to whales, and monkeys to humans, we all grieve in different and beautiful ways. This book is so heartfelt and wraps you in a cocoon of support. It’s gentle and lyrical and feels so safe and comforting.

I truly appreciated how she asks the question of how the bodies of those who die will nourish the ground and the environment around them. What a lovely way to think of a loved one after they are gone, as providing nourishment to the environment so that there is a beginning from an ending.

We experienced the death of my uncle last year and since we had watched so many nature documentaries The Bear and The Bee were familiar with death and we have always talked about the circle of life so when Uncle Michael passed away their thoughts were of how he was going to help nature. We spoke about the beautiful flowers Uncle Michael would help to grow and the grass he would nourish and in turn helping the animals that live around the cemetery. It really provided them with concrete information about death and help them in their grieving process.

The illustrations by Soyeon Kim are otherworldly. So beautiful! The love you can feel leap off the pages just by looking at the illustrations, you know this is a truly special book.

A Last Goodbye is a touching story about loss and grief. Through the voice of animals, grief is explained in a gentle and truthful manner. This book would be great for parents looking for a resource to help explain death to their child.

This book is a good introduction to death for younger readers. As morbid as that may sound, it's a good thing. The words are not fear inducing and the pictures are not graphic. The author introduces loss from the viewpoint of someone speaking to a love one who will one day die. Through the narrator, the child gets to find out what is done to prepare for death, and what mourning looks like. I would recommend this book be placed in children's hospices. It definitely makes the concept of death less scary, and provides comfort about the inevitably of it.

First of all, this book is visually stunning. It is beautifully illustrated and paper pieced. Secondly, it goes into a topic that many children’s book avoid which is death. This book shows various animals dealing with death and grief. It shows different ways that animals deal with death.

This is a weirdy beautifully illustrated book on death for many kinds of critters. I think it is to show how others witness passing and grieving - it is pretty. I think it was supposed to be written for kids, but this is not a kids book.

The art work is lovely, and overall, the ideas of how others view death and grief is interesting. Not sure how comforting it could be but a good reminder that we all suffer loss.

A delicate, spare and very touching picture book that addresses the way that some social animals (and by extension, humans) care for their dying loved ones, Kelsey’s book grew out of an encounter with a school child whose dog had recently died. “You have to stay with them and comfort them if you can,” said the little girl to the author. “They are part of your family.”

Kelsey’s text and Soyeon Kim’s gentle art shows elephants, chimpanzees, and orcas and other animals caring for family members whose lives are ending. Their bodies will return to the earth or the water, nourishing new life.

As well as alluding to the natural cycles of life and death, the book delicately acknowledges the pain of grief and loss, ending on a hopeful note about the joy of having known and shared time with another beloved being.

A sensitive book that explores death for young children. It is illustrated with pictures of animal mothers talking to their child about death. I thinks it lets a child know that death is not bad. It lets the young know it is okay to be sad and missed the one that has died.

I received a copy of this arc from NetGalley for an honest review. Good for kids who may have lost a pet. This book shows how animals grieve when others die.

Good story for young children to learn about death and grieving. It made me tear up a bit as I thought about the many animal companion loses my family and friends have gone through over the past couple of years. No humans in this story, so it could be a good book for a child who's animal companion has passed, too. I thought the illustrations were lovely and look forward to finding a copy of the book in color.

It's hard to know how to rate this book, as it was so confusing to me. The artwork is beautiful, with a sort of collage and watercolor feel to it as it shows different animals saying goodbye to loved ones who are dying (whales, elephants, gorillas...). But the text is so confusing. I thought at first that it was designed to be read to a child who was dying, and it made me so sad to think that we have a need for this kind of book. But no, it's not to a child because later it says something about someday our grandchildren will carry on and look like us. And there's mention of the narrator dying and I wondered if it was a goodbye book for when a parent is dying, but no. It seems a bit like it is meant to comfort a child about the death of a pet (and the end notes say that it was inspired by a talk with a child whose dog had died) but again... no grandkids come from our pets. And I'm not sure kids are going to find beauty and joy in lines about the nutrients in our skeletons and whether they'll nourish the ground once our bodies decay.

Will tiny roots take hold
and tall trees grow
in the rich soil you nourish?

Yeah, I just don't know. This strikes me more as the kind of book that adults would find beautiful and kids would get freaked out by. I will not be reading this to my kids. I'm not sure who I'd recommend it for, but I'm guessing some adults will like it a lot.

This series of books by Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim is so different and interesting! All of the ones I've read so far have been gentle reminders about our place in this interconnected universe. A Last Goodbye, which shows how various animals love and grieve, is no different. It reminds us that, though we might look different from a whale or a dog, we all share rich emotional lives. We love our friends and family, and we grieve when we have to say goodbye.

I didn't love the pictures here quite as much as I did in You Are Stardust and You Are Never Alone. They're still lovely, but they're not quite as interesting (and they're a lot sadder). However, they complement the gentle rhythm of the text perfectly, and the whole book works as a result.

This would be a nice book for children who have suffered a loss, or for anyone who is interested in how some animals grieve.