A Last Goodbye

PreS-Gr 4–A chimp that seems to be ill is comforted by another; a dolphin beginning to slow down has a companion to swim with in its final moments; and elephants apparently make long journeys to send off a member who is about to die. The narration comes from a parent-like watcher, “When it comes time to say our last goodbye, I will wrap my trunk around you and support you with my tusks,” in line after line of reassurance slightly modified to reflect the animals in the scene. A monkey comes to a rest, and “I will tuck soft bedding behind your back and carefully tend to your hair.” Death occurs, and the narration ponders the miracle of the soil being nourished by the decaying loved one, or the nutrients of the skeleton as a sea mammal returns to nothingness. There is sadness in the loss of an animal comrade, whether death comes to an elder or to the ailing, but Kelsey resists overt sentimentalism with a constrained tone and matter-of-fact vocabulary. It’s hard to explain the mysterious draw of the watercolor illustrations, which depict an abstract version of the natural world, and which offer body shapes and clues to actual animals but are not realistic. Their poetry comes from simplicity; the author’s note explains that these scenes are based on witnessed events among animals.