What's Heaven? [Hardcover]

Maria Shriver (Author), Sandra Speidel (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1999 | Age Range: 4 and up

What's Heaven is the story of Kate, a little girl whose great-grandma has just died. She seeks answers, and her mother helps her learn about Heaven. The many questions in this book--childlike and thought-provoking--are real, coming from Maria Shriver's own children, nieces and nephews when her grandmother Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy passed away. With loving, cinfident, and ultimately uplifting answers, Shriver taught her family, and will teach yours, how to come together, feel closer to each other, and feel peace.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Borne from actual questions asked by her own daughters, journalist Maria Shriver's What's Heaven? is a gentle narrative following the conversations that pass between a mother and a young daughter in the days immediately following the death of the child's special great-grandmother. Initially, young Kate's concern is with the obvious change in her mother. Quickly, one question leads to another.

Kate asked, "Mommy, why are you so sad?" Her mom looked at her and said, "My grandma, your great-grandma, has died and gone to Heaven." Kate thought about this for a moment. "Then she asked, "Heaven? What's Heaven?"

Shriver, who was raised Catholic, delivers a simple, traditional definition of Heaven that is rich in imagery but never overembroidered . Heaven, she writes, "is a beautiful place up in the sky, where no one is sick, where no one is mean or unhappy. It's a place beyond the moon, the stars, and the clouds.... Heaven isn't a place you can see.... It's somewhere you believe in." As the funeral approaches and Kate's questions become more pragmatic ("How will she breathe in the box?... Why did Great-grandma look so different?") her mother slowly and clearly introduces the concept of body versus soul, explaining that Great-grandma's best and brightest traits will live on forever in the people she loved. It's hard for Kate to grasp, but by book's end, when she's calling up into the sky to her Great-grandma, it is clear Kate understands. "I know you are up there, and if you can hear me, I want you to know that even though you are no longer here, your spirit will always be alive in me." Generously illustrated with Sandra Speidel's full-size pastel drawings of the characters, the sky, angels, and family photographs, this is a book that can comfortably be read in one sitting. Not that it will only be read once: it's got instant-classic written all over it. (Ages 5 and older) --Jean Lenihan

From Publishers Weekly

According to Shriver, the death of her famous grandmother, Rose Kennedy, and its effect on Shriver's daughters, then five and six, occasioned this book, a series of conversations between a girl named Kate and her mother about the death and funeral of Kate's great-grandmother. The storytelling framework can be bumpy ("[Kate] was the kind of girl whose beautiful eyes sparkled when she talked"), and Speidel's (Songs for the Seasons) idealized pastels of mother, child, fluffy clouds and prim angels, while pretty in a conventional way, don't advance the text or open it more widely to children. However, the exchange between fictional mother and daughter is unusually honest and attentive to children's concerns. Kate wants to know just where heaven is ("If heaven's in the sky, then how come I can't see it?") and just how Great-grandma got there ("Do the angels just take you through the ceiling and through the sky?"). Kate's reactions to the funeral are the common ones ("Why are we going to [bury Great-grandma in a box]?... What if she wants to get out?" and "Why did Great-grandma look so different?"), and they are met with sympathetic, reasonably clear explanations about the difference between souls and bodies. Shriver describes heaven in nondenominational terms, with more emphasis on angels than on God, and she leaves plenty of room for other schools of thought ("Some people believe in different kinds of heaven and have different names for it"). If its structure and overlong text make this book awkward for sharing directly with a child, its content serves as an excellent model for parents. All ages.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (February 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307440435
• ISBN-13: 978-0307440433
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #626,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for the recommended age group May 15, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

The author's name drew my attention to the book, but was not why I bought the book. Professionally (school psychology and christian education), I felt the book spoke to children. It takes seriously the questions they ask. It explains things in terms that make sense to them. The author tried to expand the understanding of death and heaven beyond her Roman Catholic background. I think she was mostly successful; at least the book opens room for discussion. This is not a theological text, but a simple book explaining a child's questions about death. I bought the book for my granddaughter two days before her great-grandfather died. Her Mother read it to her as they sat in the Memorial Garden right after the inurnment. They sat and talked and cried. They both liked the book. But the real proof is the fact that later that afternoon when all the family was around, my granddaughter was found sitting quietly in a corner reading the book again to herself.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A god-sent book for children experiencing death October 21, 2000

By ttrahan

Format:Hardcover

I heard about this book from a friend after my husband passed away suddently. My seven year old daughter was helped tremendously by this book. She has had this book read to her time and time again. Whenever she is feeling sad or confused about her farther's death, she pulls the book out and ask for someone to read it to her. This book has meant alot to her and is written on a level for young children to understand a difficult topic. I highly suggest that this book be purchased for children coping with the death of a loved one.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A gentle introduction to the rituals of death. July 20, 2002

By Julie Lovisa VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This little book will do much to help a child begin to understand the enormity of death. The point of it is not to argue whether there is a Heaven and whether everyone will go there, but to create a safe haven for children to ask questions and receive a little comfort. I used this book to help explain to my 3-year old about my dad's death and used it simply as a tool, skipping over parts I thought she wouldn't understand and expanding on the ones I thought she would. She has come through with the understanding that grandpa is in Heaven (and who is going to explain the complexities of the ideas Heaven and Hell to a 3-year old and frighten them in the process??) and that she will always have her memories of him in her heart to help keep him alive. It also explains that it's OK to be sad and cry if it helps you to feel better about your loss. My daughter has been comforted by that and that's all that matters. This is a childrens' book, after all, geared toward childrens' understandings...not a theological debate.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Such a comfort July 2, 2002

By Just Another Opinion

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book for my 6-year old brother when our father was dying of cancer. (I am in my early 30's, FYI.) I thought that my brother needed some kind of tangible representation not only of death but also of what to expect at the funeral.

The important part of this book is that it introduces children to the idea of death and to the ritual of a funeral and to one conception of what happens after we die. In the case of my brother, it opened the doors of communication so that he could ask everything he wanted to know about death. And when my father did die, my brother was prepared. He wasn't surprised by anything that happened because he had a comfortable understanding of what was going on around him.

I give Shriver great credit for creating this valuable book. It is not a replacement for communication within the family, but it is a good jumping-off point for discussions.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book to share with your children January 7, 2006

By Carolyn Rowe Hill

Format:Hardcover

Maria Shriver does a beautiful job of putting together a story that helps explain loss to children...and she should know. She has lost many loved ones in her life, among them our country's president, her Uncle Jack (Kennedy), when she was eight. Her family had to endure much intrusion into their private grief during that difficult time for our nation.

In What's Heaven, young Kate's great grandmother has died and she has questions, many questions. In a recent interview, Shriver stated that she had many questions about death when she was young, but couldn't ask them because in her family death was not talked about. Many of her questions remained inside her into adulthood. When her grandmother, Rose Kennedy, died, her own daughter began asking her the same questions Maria had as a child. Questions that were never answered. Thus, this book was born.

Kate wants to know why her mother is sad. Mother answers that her grandma, Kate's great grandma, has died and gone to heaven. Naturally, Kate asks what heaven is, so mother explains, and that brings on more questions. Kate wants to know if animals and people go to the same heaven, and why she can't see heaven, and how you get there, and what's a funeral, a soul, and...???

The book is sensitivly written by Shriver and beautifully illustrated by Sandra Speidel whose wispy, soft pastels give the reader a heavenly feeling as the book is being read. The book is a nice size, being just under 8" square. The paper used is smooth and pleasant to the touch with ample white space between lines of text. Each set of facing pages has text on one side and a pastel painting on the other.

What's Heaven is a treasure and a gentle, loving way to help children understand what happens when someone dies.... It will also open up a healthy conversation between adult and child about the loss of loved ones. Losing a pet is often the first death of a loved one a child experiences (our five-year-old granddaughter will often say she misses their dog, Junior, but she knows he's in heaven. She is comforted by that thought). We've had some sad losses in our family, but we are a family that talks about those we love who have left us. Talking about our memories of loved ones helps to keep them alive in our hearts and minds, which seems much healthier than shutting those memories away. As young Kate says to her great grandmother while looking skyward at the end of the book, "...I want you to know that even though you are no longer here, your spirit will always be alive in me."

Carolyn Rowe Hill Read more ›