Originally published in Dutch as De Gouden Vogel: dagboek van een stervende jongen, this brief novella for younger readers addresses itself to a subject that can be very difficult: namely, the death of a child. It is told from the perspective of Daniel, a young cancer patient who is visited by three birds - a green bird who remains silent and returns only once, a blue bird named Victor, who returns often and coaches Daniel through his dying, and a golden bird whose return will mark the moment when Daniel leaves behind his earthly life. As he grapples with his feelings and his uncertainties - his grief at leaving his mother behind, his fear of what lies ahead, his sense of anger at the unfairness of his illness - he is surrounded by care and love, both from the those who can be seen (his mother, his visiting friends, his nurses) and from those who cannot (his father, dead for four years, and God). In the end (or not), when the golden bird arrives, Daniel is ready...

The precis above does little to capture the feeling of The Golden Bird: its sense of sadness, but also of peace and acceptance. This is a deeply emotional story, but it is not a sentimental one, and there is nothing overdone or melodramatic in it. It involves the presence of God, and presupposes a belief in an afterlife, but it is utterly non-dogmatic and non-theological, more concerned with the experience of the child, than in promoting any message. Its author, Hans Stolp, is a pastor who worked for many years with hospitalized children, and who sought to tell a story employing "the particular symbolic language (sick) children may use to come to terms with the fundamental questions of life and death."

The result is beautiful. I found myself weeping at many points: when Daniel holds the newborn baby, or when he asks his mother about the pain of childbirth, and then reflects: "I guess that being born and dying are almost the same...They're both hard, but what comes next is so wonderful that you forget the hurt right away." The image of the blossoming cherry tree - both in the story, and in the lovely illustration by Lidia Postma - was very moving. Indeed, all of the artwork - the reason I picked up this book in the first place, as I'd been looking for more of Postma's work - was beautiful. Everything about this book was beautiful! I don't know, given the presence of the divine, whether this story will "work" for every reader, but I found it immensely moving, and recommend it highly. ( )