Is Daddy Coming Back in a Minute? / What Happened to Daddy’s Body?

Explaining the sensitive topic of death to young children, I worked closely with author Elke Barber to bring her autobiographical story to life.

Each book was in full colour and took much planning to develop. Elke was passionate about telling the story in a way that would work for pre-school age children because there was nothing around to help her when the sad events happened. Publishing the book was as a way for Elke to process that experience and also to help others who faced the same trauma.

I worked closely with Elke on the story as well as on the images to ensure that there was a clear and engaging narrative throughout. We also got the help of a bereavement counsellor who advised us on how best to make the story understandable for a young audience.

I developed the book’s illustrations by hand, backed up by the use of watercolours and Photoshop to add the finishing touches.

The book was very well received and won the Kate Greenaway prize for children’s books in 2013. Since then, the books are also available in German. [Linkto the website]