A Last Goodbye

Kelsey and Kim (You Are Never Alone) have previously collaborated on science-based stories about life on Earth. Here, they study animals at the ends of their lives. When companions are dying, higher mammals display behaviors that are complex and poignant: “I will tuck soft bedding behind your back,” Kelsey writes, imagining a chimpanzee addressing another, “and carefully tend to your hair.” After a death, killer whales assemble: “Some will travel long distances, and stay for many hours.” And what happens after animals die? They become part of the earth: “Will tiny roots take hold... in the rich soil you nourish? Will new undersea communities flourish on the nutrients found in your skeleton?” In Kim’s absorbing dioramas, hung from frames and photographed to create tender scenes of community, intimacy, and loss, the dying creatures are paler than their companions; they lie as if sleeping. Individual animals are painstakingly detailed, and paper trees filled with species form the illusion of hanging boughs. While the deaths portrayed by Kelsey and Kim are never violent, they are deeply sad in a way that befits their subject matter. Readers will appreciate the matter-of-fact, never emotionally prescriptive look at creatures’ mourning behaviors. Ages 4–up. [em](Apr.) [/em]