Gone

Gone (Thames & Hudson Australia) 2025. Text and illustrations by Michel Streich PB RRP $26.99 ISBN 978-1-760-76492-0

Reviewed by Sylvia Forbes

My fluttering, chirping, hopping bird was gone.

Its body was still there, a silent, feathery

shape, but all life had left it.

I love the open space this picture book provides in both its text and illustrations. So much is said with so little.

Gone is told through the internal dialogue of a young, curious and thoughtful boy who has woken to find that his bird has died. It is said matter-of-factly, neither fluffy nor sentimental, yet it is full of heart and feeling.

The illustrations complement the text beautifully. Large, clean swathes of primary and secondary colours - predominantly yellow, orange, and red - are used to create almost collage-like images with the overlays and additions of black line work. These illustrations are minimal yet eloquent and highly appealing to children. 

I love the double-page spread where the boy is crouched over, his eyes lowered, with his head resting in his hand - and you see another hand, outlined in black, gently placed on the boy's shoulder. It tells me that although this is all about the boy's journey - of being allowed to process his loss in his own way and in his own time - he is not alone. I also love the text placement. Mainly where the text is used to form stems for the new shoots.

And I thought that Michel Streich's choice of a bird (as opposed to, say, a cat, a dog, or a fish) was clever, with its metaphorical symbolic references - wings, flight, and feathers. As seen on the book's striking front cover.

For such a potentially difficult subject, with its themes of loss and grief, this text is handled with ease and remains bright and positive, normalising death as an integral part of life. 

Quiet, simple and child-friendly, Gone provides ample room for reflection and discussion.

But what happens when we die?

Gone presents several possibilities in response to the question posed within the text. Although there is no definitive answer to conclude the story with neatly, it arrives at a gentle and satisfying ending with a sense of hope and continuity... much like the forward upward stream of birds seen flying across the following two end pages. It is a beautiful, poetically cohesive and understated book. Suitable for ages 3-6 and beyond.