Duck, Death and the Tulip - Reading and discussing a challenging Picture book with elementary school children

ABSTRACT

In this article, we analyze the reception of the picture book Duck, death and the tulip, by the German artist Wolf Erlbruch, based on reading practices conducted in two 4th grade classes of elementary public schools in Porto Alegre (state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our analyzes focus on the ways in which children readers interact with Erlbruch's literary text and make sense of its messages based on their own cultural and cognitive repertoires. The article also analyzes the book’s structural elements, especially the synergy between verbal and pictorial language as well as the way Erlbruch portrays the issue of death. Our discussions about death and literature for children draw on the studies of among others Fanuel H. Díaz, Norbert Elias, Jan Reinhardt, Simone Weber, Teresa Colomer, whereas the analyzes of the children's multiple responses to the book are inspired in the studies of literary conversation by Aidan Chambers.

Keywords:
Literature for children; Duck, death and the tulip; Death; Literary reading in the classroom