I just read an interesting article by Angie Wagner over at AOL Australia Lifestyle on Talking to Kids About Death. Wagner has interviewed Diane Cantrell, author of our book “Good-bye, Baby Max,” which is about a kindergarten classroom who deals with the loss of their classroom pet. Diane provides a lovely honest perspective on talking about death with little kids, offering the advice to not be afraid of discussing it with your children.
I just read a kind review of my book, “Good-bye, Baby Max,” by Lillian Brummet over at Chrsty’s Book Reviews :
“Good-bye Baby Max is a wonderful children’s book for those who are coping with the end of life. A former kindergarten teacher who currently works as a professional counselor and life coach in Texas wrote the hardcover book. The author, Diane Cantrell, states that the book was written to stimulate discussion on a topic that is often difficult to broach.
The illustrations are filled with gold, red, green and blue in the art are filled with activity, creations on the walls by the class and teacher’s lessons displayed here and there. The nature scenes are lovely and occasionally spotted with cute ladybugs - which might be fun to inspire your children find them….
Children will enjoy the opening and closing pages that are filled with tiny yellow chicks…. Rating 4 out of 5 stars.”
I stumbled across another review of my book, “Good-bye, Baby Max” over at TheCelebrityCafe.com by Janet Pope :
“Mrs. B’s kindergarten class anxiously awaited the arrival of three baby chicks, which they have already named. But Max, the last one to hatch, doesn’t make it into the world. The next morning, Mrs. B has to break the sad news to the class. The rest of the story, told in rhyming text, shows how the children and the teacher handle their grief. “Silence falls over the room. Liz and Rob begin to cry. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Mrs. B. ‘We’ll find a way to say good-bye.’”
This simple and tender story takes a look at an occurrence that most every child, unfortunately experiences at least once during their childhood - the death of a class pet or a pet of their own. The colorful illustrations by Heather Castles are soft and muted, adding to the seriousness of the subject. The expressions on the faces of the multi-cultural children are precious and touching.
This a a great book for any young child experiencing a loss, especially appropriate for ages 4 through 8. This is a difficult subject to approach with a young child and this book would ease that conversation.”
I came across a kind review by S.V. Swamy in India, reviewing our book, Good-bye, Baby Max : “Good-bye, Baby Max is a beautifully written and equally (or more importantly) beautifully illustrated book for children in the suggested age group of 4 to 8 years. For the children in the younger part of this age group, the parents or elder children and other care givers can help in reading and also deal with the emotions that may arise…. The illustrations are beautiful and help to invoke the right feelings. The book tells children some important things about life: Life is a struggle and everyone doesn’t make it. It is OK to cry and mourn those who fail and fall down. But life is about accepting the loss and moving on and seeing the emergence of new life. The children can be encouraged to read, explore and analyze the emotions that well up….”
Diane & Rich Cantrell just passed this review by Ernest Dempsey onto me for our book, “Good-bye, Baby Max:”
“Many children books are printed each month to amuse kids of varying ages. This colorful, hardcover children’s title Good-bye, Baby Max (Bridgeway Books, Texas, 2007) by Diane Cantrell & Heather Castles is special in its purpose of teaching an invaluable lesson: that of properly saying the final farewell to a loved one who is no more. The book tells the story of the unfortunate baby chick Max who doesn’t make it into life while his twins Dora and Spiderman appear healthy out of their shells. The kids, eagerly awaiting the birth of the chicks, are heartbroken over the death of Baby Max and so their teacher uses her wisdom and care to lead them toward the appropriate way of showing their love and expressing their grief.
The importance of involving children in mourning is increasingly being acknowledged by developmental psychologists since children do sense the loss no matter how much they are coaxed into believing that ‘everything is ok.’ By being left out with the ‘mystery’, their wee minds are inclined to conclude that something terribly wrong has happened; something that is not worth speaking. This sows the seeds of fear and detachment in their mental development. Being a Licensed Professional Counselor and former KG teacher, Diane Cantrell has created a very purposeful book for children-one that is at once a story, a poem, and a healthy course of helping children get over grief. The book’s illustrations by Heather Castles are very appealing to a child’s imagination. There is a good deal here in Good-bye, Baby Max to learn for children ages 4 to 8 years and the 32-pages book is a must read for all kids of this age category.”
Yippee! After all our hard work, Diane Cantrell’s “Good-bye, Baby Max” is now available online through Bridgeway Books at Amazon.com! The hard cover book (complete with dustjacket, emboss & spot varnish) is on sale at Amazon.com for US$11.53 (Retails at $16.95), and will be available in shops in February 2008. If you pre-order the book, you can get an additional 5% off at checkout.
“Mrs. B’s class excitedly awaits the birth of three baby chicks. When Max is unable to crack open his shell, the children’s loving teacher assists them in expressing their feelings of loss and planning a special good-bye.”
After the detailed process of revising and tweaking the layout of Diane Cantrell’s “Good-bye, Baby Max,” it has officially been sent off to the printer! This is the finished front cover… it was a bit of a challenge as the illustration used for the cover (below) had to be chopped in half, and the right & left sides swapped so that the right side of the original illustration would show on the back cover. Tricky stuff! I also moved Mrs. B to the front cover with Photoshop. The rug was also a later addition to the illustration, painted seperately, then scanned and added in with Photoshop.
It was such a valuable experience working with the the team at Bridgeway Books on the cover & interior design of the story to complement the illustrations. I set up the print-ready files for the book jacket, cover, endpages & interior with Adobe InDesign CS2. For a sneak peak at the inside illustrations, check out this previous post! (Read on …)
Just finished doing some revisions to the final illustrations for Diane Cantrell’s “Good-bye, Baby Max”… some were minor (botox injections) some were major (plastic surgery.) From brightening Mrs. B’s blonde hair to adding a colourful rug to the classroom, to adding in a new illustration of the momentos left for baby Max, they all improved the illustrations quite a bit. (Read on …)
I think I’m 99% done the illustrations for Diane Cantrell’s “Good-bye, Baby Max”! Diane is having a look through to see if anything else needs to be changed… I’ve got a couple details I’d like to change (like adding Mrs. B’s hoops in on spread 4!), maybe fiddle with brightening some highlights & colour correcting in Photoshop…but this is pretty close to finished! Any feedback at this stage would be most welcome! Next up will be playing with the typography and getting the book ready for print… (Read on …)
I have brightened up the colours & added some more details to Diane Cantrell’s “Good-bye, Baby Max” children’s book illustrations… only a few days away from completing now! Thought I’d post with the type this time so I took some screen shots from the InDesign layout. I find it helpful seeing the illustrations with the type on top at various stages, to be sure the illustration behind the text is light / dark enough for the text to read easily. Read on to check out the rest of the illustrations in the book.
