My little sister (well she's not so little) gave me this. I have suffered from depression for a long time, and this book beautifully illustrates the feelings I have encountered (or should I say suffered). Although this is a picture book, it is not a children's book. The illustrations are amazing.

If you or someone you know is suffering from depression or grief, it would be a lovely gift. ( )

This is an astonishingly lovely children's book about, believe it or not, depression. Although what it portrays may seem gloomy, it is definitely a masterpiece, hands down. ( )

Tan's evocation of emotional states in surreal imagery is profound and true. I love this guy's work. It would be interesting to use this book as a jumping-off point for "how I feel" drawings beyond happy and sad faces. ( )

If you want to know what depression feels like -- the hard-core deal, and not the passing thing where you're kinda bummed that your vacation is over and you have to go back to work again -- this is it. (Except depression is a lot less aesthetic than this -- but, hey, artistic license.) Turning the pages was almost eerie, with a sense that Tan knew far, far too much about what great swaths of my childhood felt like; he had taken my inner life and smeared it across the page for anyone to see.

Except, you know, making it beautiful.

I was reading this in the library with occasional passers-by, and each time a shadow moved in my peripheral vision, I wanted to slam the book shut, for fear that they would see what I was looking at and know.

I've got to say, based on the two books of Tan's that I've read, the man is awesome-brilliant. Little details in the spreads kept catching my eye, extra little messages that double-underscored the point of the illustration. The spread of the child looking out the window at clouds and birds and beautiful things, and how isolated s/he feels from them--? That the illustration is composed looking in at the child, with the beautiful things the child is looking at only visible as a reflection, just an illusion on the glass... Heart-breaking. I kept touching the page, stroking that picture.

Okay, maybe the very last spread is something of a sell-out, the adult voice interjecting what he wants the child to believe. But, FWIW, I also remember that my very favorite book as a child had a similar final page -- an assertion that sometimes the world is different than this -- and I remember finding it comforting. So.

This is an achingly beautiful picture book about depression. While this seems a surprising theme for a picture book, the rich art and the sparse words seem to easily give me a taste of despair, and the tiny glimmers of hope that may or may not be able to break into it.
I haven't heard a child's opinion of this book, but I think it would be a wonderful way to help a child come to terms with feelings of sadness, or help understand a loved one experiencing depression. ( )