Aware their grandmother is gravely ill, four siblings make a pact to keep death from taking her away.

But Death does arrive all the same, as it must. He comes gently, naturally. And he comes with enough time to share a story with the children that helps them to realize the value of loss to life and the importance of being able to say goodbye.

In this empathic picture book, Death—a towering, robed figure with a beaklike nose and sorrowful expression—solemnly sits with four children around their grandmother’s kitchen table.

“Not wishing to frighten the children, the visitor had left his scythe outside the door,” writes Ringtved, providing a clue as to the figure’s tender nature.

And yet, he has come for their grandmother, resting upstairs.

The children refill Death’s coffee mug, in an attempt to postpone the inevitable; while drinking his coffee, Death tells them an allegorical story to illustrate how, like grief and joy or sorrow and delight, life and death cannot exist without the other.

“What would life be worth if there were no death?” he asks.

Finally, Death goes upstairs, telling the children the words of the title, ‘Cry, Heart, But Never Break’; which offer comfort in the following years.

Death’s almost grandfatherly persona suggests that there is a time to go gently into that good night.

Gentle, wistful reading for times of imminent loss. The gorgeous pencil and watercolour illustrations that accompany the text make this book a visual treat

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