It’s time to be happy, bone man!

Ca Rose
It’s time to be happy, bone man!
Book design by Christiane Dunkel-Koberg

“One day, the little girl’s great grandmother got her out of bed and said: ‘My darling, my body has become old and creaky. It wants to rest. And I would like to be able to dance again. It’s time for me to go – but Death won’t come. I don’t know why. Could you find out why he is making me wait so long for him?’”

But where do you look for Death when you’re a little girl? And when you don’t even know if you really want to find him? What does he look like, and why has he disappeared? The little girl sets out on an uncertain journey, encountering many animals that join her as she searches for Death. Eventually, the unusual group of companions reaches a unique place. And it turns out that Death is very different from what they had expected…

In her picture book debut, Ca Rose tells a philosophical story about death and partings. The colourful illustrations evoke depictions of the Mexican ‘Día de Muertos’ (Day of the Dead), which is a joyful folk festival to commemorate those who have died.

Ca Rose: “The illustrations were drawn exclusively with various hard and soft pencils and then put together and colourised in Photoshop. The coloured areas are pencil hatchings, which are superimposed in layers with different levels of visibility (opacity) once colour has been added. This often makes the colours appear deeper and more painterly.”

Look inside