Lost in the Clouds
Written and illustrated by Tom Tinn-Disbury
DK, 2021, 32 pp (unpaged)
ISBN: 978-0744036596

Billy once lived happily with his parents, until one day his mother died. Billy believes that his mother has turned into a cloud in the sky. It’s a magical cloud; sometimes it asks the sun to make his sky sunny and full of beauty, and sometimes the cloud grows bigger when Billy misses her. The cloud becomes black when his day is bad: the sun disappears and the sky turns stormy. Billy is tired of these days, tired of only being able to imagine his mother in the clouds. He decides to go find his mother, so he sets up a very long ladder that is tall enough to help him touch that cloud. However, he falls off the ladder and feels like he is falling forever. Luckily, his father catches him and teaches him the importance of confiding in others. He tells Billy about strategies for coping such as talking about his feelings and memories about his mother with trusted adults or friends. After that, the sadness begins to decrease, the rain finally stops and a rainbow hangs in the blue sky. The rainwater causes a flower in the yard to sprout, one that he and his mother had planted together in the yard. Brown-skinned Billy and his father prepare to plant another flower so that the plants can grow side by side in the storm and sunshine, symbolizing the growth and beauty that can come from difficult times. Billy realizes that his mother will always be there to protect and bless him in the clouds and finds a connection to his mother in the windy storm.

Lost in the Clouds is a poignant, gentle story with meaningful illustrations that help children understand death and grief. Every child will experience loss at some point in their lives. Where does the life essence of the loved one go? In this book, the child protagonist starts to find answers by himself but turns to the omniscient adult who has the answers when he is helpless. This book serves as an agent of emotional healing, letting children know that they can navigate their feelings of loss independently but can also seek help from an adult. This increases the possibilities for children’s courage and emotional growth rather than simply relying on adults to deal with sorrow.

The gorgeous illustrations, full of emotion and memories, show children the different faces of grief: it can be a heavy burden when sadness washes over us without warning, but it also can be an anchor to keep our lives from capsizing in a storm of emotion. The colors throughout the book enhance the mood and atmosphere, and are consistent with the main character’s feelings. For example, when Billy misses his mother, the colors are blue and gray, evoking a sense of emptiness. When he feels happy, the colors are green and white. The use of cool colors in the sky evokes a more calm and serious tone, aligning perfectly with the book’s theme. The author also uses bold shadows to create the big dark clouds that pop off the page, giving readers an image of Billy being overwhelmed by sadness. When explaining death, the author avoids using vague phrases or euphemisms but uses the word “died” directly, which helps children accept death as a natural process of life.

The story focuses on facing tragedy with the support of others and turning it into love. The way Billy and his father reminisce about his mother in the book gives young readers who are in similar situations a chance to meditate on the loss and rejoice in the life that was shared. This sensitively written and illustrated book offers a simple way for adults to start a conversation about the difficult topic with children at different levels of thinking and abstraction. The imaginative twist in the story helps children process and overcome their feelings of loss. Lost in the Clouds reminds readers that the people we love remain in our hearts, even if they are gone from our sight. While we may never be fully healed, we can transform our sadness into strength and continue to move forward.

Possible book pairs that talk about the sadness of losing a loved one include The Memory String by Eve Bunting and Ted Rand (2000) which tells the story of a memory string that records the history of a young girl’s family. The story explores the value of memories both old and new. An additional picturebook that deals with sadness and remembering the deceased is Cry, Heart, But Never Break (Glenn Ringtved, 2016). Other book pairs tell stories of children dealing with strong emotions. The Invisible String by Patrice Karst with new illustrations by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff (2018) explores the intangible but unbreakable connections between loved ones. The bright and bold colors of the illustrations form a sharp contrast, seemingly telling the reader that our lives are full of different emotions (sorrow or happiness), but they are full of vitality because love is the armor to fight all of life’s battles. The Rabbit Listened (Cori Doerrfeld, 2018) emphasizes the importance of listening to children express their emotions.

Author and illustrator Tom Tinn-Disbury comes from Rugby, Warwickshire, United Kingdom. He previously worked in the production of films and animation. He published his debut author/illustrated picturebook The Caveman Next Door in 2019. His work can be found on his website.

Yimei Xiong, Purdue University

© 2024 by Yimei Xiong

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 Yimei Xiong at https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/review/xvi-3/6/

WOW review: reading across cultures
ISSN 2577-0527