Such a fun and whimsical book! Finished it in a few hours, and loved the ending.

This was such a beautiful story! I love a plot that incorporates magic in such a subtle, natural way, as if your imagination's wildest creations could just come to life if you wished it hard enough. Such heartwarming characters as well, this book was lovely in every way! The author is not afraid to explore delicate, somehow dark topics, but she has a way to make them perfectly suitable for a younger audience, which this book is clearly written for. However, anyone can enjoy this book and get something from it. I recommend it!

A sweet little story perfect for late elementary or middle grades. A touch of magic realism, lovely characters, and a charming Italian village setting make it a cozy read. The various story elements connected beautifully and made for a really marvelous story. I think this would be great read aloud to school aged children at bedtime - the chapters are short and there are illustrations. The narrator sounds like a storyteller, and I think hearing it read aloud would add to the ambiance of this story.

Príbeh o priateľstve osamelého truhlára a nešťastného chlapca, pretkané krásnymi ilustráciami. Jedna z najkrajších detských kníh, aké som čítala.

“Don’t be frightened. The dead cannot hurt us; only the living can do that.”

A dark and sad tone for a middle grade book, but also very sweet. It’s one of those stories that slowly shifts to the heartwarming tone, even if it never quite loses the darkness. Beautifully written with equally beautiful and simple illustrations every 20 or so pages. Each page is also framed by small little floral drawings. This book is so atmospheric, and I usually don’t care about that, but I loved it here. I really enjoyed this book.

As the title suggests, there’s a lot of death in this little book. There’s also a lot of life too though. Alberto is a simple, good man who has suffered severely, and yet he persists and stays positive, treating people (both living and dead) with kindness. The boy in this story has suffered similarly, and I might argue more so. I don’t want to say too much more about the story itself because it’s a pretty short one at 190 pages, and I want everyone to experience it as I did, going into it knowing very little. I had low expectations, but I think even if they were high, I would still have loved this book. There were quite a few times when I got the sad/happy chills, if you know what I mean by that, or even felt myself tearing up a bit. I was emotionally invested. I loved a few characters so much that I didn’t stop reading until I’d finished the book, and I also hated a few characters passionately. I definitely did not expect to find such a little gem of a book on accident. I’ve been searching for comfort reads lately and this was just what I needed.

Gorgeous.

This was cute and charming and I should have loved it, but I didn't. I think it's because it was trying to be too many things at once. It's a story about family, and what family means. It's a story about a village, it's a story within a story about a magical place...it goes a bit Pan's Labyrinth there for awhile.
It was just too much. It's not a bad read, at all, it's just scattered.

Side note (and this does not affect the review at all): I can't stand book titles that are lists. I think The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe has that covered already and anyone who has every watched a patron struggle to remember the name of a book Angus? Thongs? Big Things? So, I'm not a big fan of lists as titles.

What a charming story!
It felt like reading a well known bed time story than the first novel from the author.
I think this would be great for children to introduce concept of death. They are quite a lot of mentions of bodies but in a light hearted way.
The illustrations are beautiful and really add something to the story telling.