To Hell with Dying [Paperback]

Alice Walker (Author), Catherine Deeter (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up

“The tender colors seem lit from within, creating a reverential mood that enhances the story’s compelling narrative. A loving remembrance of a common man whose humanity Walker makes memorable.”--Booklist “Overflowing with compassion, humor, and good sense, [it is] a fine story of deep feeling.”--Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An adult sensibility infuses this evocative work, which is somewhat long for the picture book format, and more of a memoir than a linear narrative. Deeter's naturalistic paintings fairly burst with color. All ages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5 Although this book rambles in the fashion of oral narrative, at its center is the narrator's feeling for Mr. Sweet, an elderly friend from her childhood. Dia betic and alcoholic Mr. Sweet is repeat edly recalled from the edge of ``death'' by the narrator and her brother. Their affectionate need for him works like a charm until his 90th birthday, when the narrator hurries back from the university but is only just recognized before Mr. Sweet is really gone. Mr. Sweet's mor tality is somehow a personal failure as well as a personal loss. This book does not successfully bridge the distance be tween the quality of the author's experi ence and the accessibility of that experi ence to a young audience. Its text, unusually long for a picture book, is di gressive, minimally structured, and sometimes difficult to read aloud. Refer ences to alcoholism, womanizing, ques tionable parentage, and poverty lend a confusing aura of realism to what is es sentially a romanticized tale. The first- person narrator herself seems not to have clarified her own contradictory feelings towards the events she retells. On one page she admits that ``these deaths upset me fearfully, and the thought of how much depended on me . . .made me very nervous,'' while two pages further on she says, `` it did not occur to us that we were doing anything special; we had not learned that death was final when it did come.'' Like the text, the many full-page illustrations are both hyper-realistic and highly roman tic. Poetic pastels, and repeated motifs of flowers, rainbows, and blue skies, balance details of peeling paint and patched clothes. Deeter is a sensitive portraitist and makes the heroine beauti ful through emphasizing her black fea tures. A note of sentimentality in the pictures echoes a similar note, for all the narrator's forthrightness, in the text. Patricia Dooley, formerly at Drexel Uni versity, Philadelphia
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Sandpiper (February 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152890742
• ISBN-13: 978-0152890742
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alice Walker is one of the most prolific writers of our time, known for her literary fiction, including the Pultizer Prize-winning The Color Purple, her many volumes of poetry, and her powerful nonfiction collections. Walker's most recent book is The Chicken Chronicles, a memoir. Her advocacy for the dispossessed has spanned the globe. She lives in Northern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEAUTIFUL BOOK!!!, January 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: To Hell with Dying (Paperback)

Beautifully written, beautifully illustrated. My mother insisted on reading this book to me when i was at the age where i was "too old for children's books!" When she finished, i asked whether maybe i could keep the book...

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lovely story about the connection between people, November 12, 2006

By 

R. E. Hancock (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Hell with Dying (Paperback)

I remember reading this book when I was a little girl and being so moved at 7 or 8 years old by the sensitivity of the relationship between the little girl and old man and the accute sense of personal loss at his death. Now that I am older, I appreciate even more the emphasis of human connection that shines through in this book. How wonderful to be a child and have a friend like Mr. Sweet. Although written in a style that younger children can easily relate to, it is a beautiful story to be appreciated at any age. I still have my copy twenty years later. The only hesitation would be the title which may make some parents nervous but again, I was never negatively influenced by it and the story's positive message far outweighs this one flaw. Beautiful illustrations as well.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read at your own risk!, April 25, 2004

By 

Francisco Vargas (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Hell with Dying (Paperback)

Even if the ALA gives it a horrible review, this book is the side kick to literature such as The Bluest Eye, and Color Purple, believe it or not I would not consider this book for even my 5th graders, but rather the graduate level Library Science students! I had to read it twice and stop along the way, take in the details and realize how this miserable man's life had touched a young bright girl. At a time when so much is against African Americans a book comes along and you see a different reality. A reality whites choose to dismiss altogether, I'm Latino and in many ways I cannot relate to this story, however; it was a story that proves people wrong in so many ways.