Empty and Me
Written by Azam Mahdavi
Illustrated by Maryam Tahmasebi
Translated by Parisa Saranj
Lee & Low Books, 2023, 40 pp (unpaged)
ISBN: 978-1643796222

Empty and Me is a bilingual exploration of loss and grief, narrated in both Persian and English, delving into how a child navigates these experiences. The protagonist is a young girl who loses her mother, and the story starts with a picture of her potting a plant with her mother for the last time. The girl finds herself adrift in a sea of sorrow when she loses her mother; her world is forever altered by the absence of the one who gave her life meaning and warmth. Suddenly, a huge gray creature fills the empty space left by her mother. This creature sleeps next to her, comes between the girl and her father during dinner, accompanies her to school holding her hand, spends time with her at school and home when she is completely alone or thinking about her mother, and even goes to the amusement park with the girl and her father.

Once the plant that she and her mother potted together flowers, the narrator gives one of the flowers to the creature; after that, everything changes. The flower gives birth within the creature to more and more flowers. The flowers fill the emptiness in the creature, helping the girl deal with the grief of the loss. The last page of the book shows a picture of the girl, the father, the creature, and the pot with the plant. Although the creature is smaller, it remains next to the girl. The story shows that the grief of losing a loved one will not be forgotten even during good times, like seeing a funny play or going to an amusement park. A picture on the wall, which includes a flower, holds symbolic significance within the context of the story. The flower represents a cherished memory of the girl’s mother, capturing a moment in time when they were together, keeping her memory alive and close to her heart. It also symbolizes the enduring cycle of life and the potential for growth and renewal even in the face of loss, referring to the girl’s journey through grief and healing.

Other elements of the book also convey the girl’s grief, such as the dominant use of yellow, black, and dark colors which illustrate the emotional atmosphere and thematic elements of loss and sorrow. Dark colors symbolize the heaviness of grief and the overwhelming sense of loss experienced by the girl. The illustrations, created digitally by Maryam Tahmasebi, further amplify these emotions through the manipulation of colors and shapes. At the end of the story, different colors are used to illustrate scenes that depict the interplay between moments of lightness and darkness in the girl’s life. Both the narrative and illustrations provide a healing perspective for children who have lost someone. The loss will not be forgotten over time; however, they will learn how to cope with the sadness of the circumstances.

Based on the main theme of the book, the loss of a loved one, Empty and Me can be paired with other titles that explore similar themes. For instance, One Day by Juck Lee and Seung-youn Kim (2021) delves into the inner world of a child who suddenly loses his grandfather, pairing real-life emotions with imaginative storytelling. Similarly, Dadaji’s Paintbrush by Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Ruchi Mhasane (2022) depicts a young boy in India who, after losing his grandfather, no longer wants to paint because it reminds him that his grandfather is no longer with him. Michael Rosen’s Sad Book by Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake (2005) illustrates the feelings of Rosen who lost his eighteen-year-old son and describes his sadness as a cloud that comes along and covers him up. Each of these books offers unique perspectives on loss and healing, inviting readers to explore the complexities of bereavement through the lens of storytelling and imagination.

Azam Mahdavi is an author, artist, translator, and graphic designer born in Tehran, Iran. She has published numerous books for children and young adults in Iran, which have been translated into different languages. Several of her books have received awards in different national festivals, like the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults’ Festival. Empty and Me is her first book to be translated into English and published in the United States.

Maryam Tahmasebi is an Iranian illustrator and designer, with a graphic design degree from the University of Tehran. She has illustrated six books published in Iran, which have been translated into Korean, Turkish, and Chinese. She has always been captivated by lines, colors, and shapes playing on paper. What she likes most is watching carefree children sit around and read a book she has contributed to.

The translator, Parisa Saranj, was born in Isfahan, Iran. Her writings and translations have been published in different magazines and journals, like Ms. Magazine, Two Lines, and Consequence. Related to this book, she states that she lost her mother at a young age, and she wishes there was a book like this when she was going through the early stages of her grief. She currently resides in Baltimore with her cat.

Narges Zandi, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

© 2024 by Narges Zandi

WOW Review, Volume XVI, Issue 3 by Worlds of Words is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on work by Narges Zandi at https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/review/xvi-3/4/

WOW review: reading across cultures
ISSN 2577-0527