Microcosm Publishing & Distribution - Bigger Than a Dream

A Boy, His Sister, and a Bike Ride Through Something Bigger Than a Dream A boy hears a voice calling him one day — the voice of his sister, a girl he never got to meet because she died before he was born. Her photograph hangs on the wall; her absence is a kind of sadness that lives in the walls of the house, in his mother's soup, in the things his father builds. That night he asks his mother what death is like. She tells him: "It's like dreaming, only bigger." It's a beautiful answer, but not quite enough. So his sister comes to him and they ride their bikes together — not always on the ground — visiting the places that mattered to her when she was alive, while she talks to him in the older-sister way he's always needed: teasing, direct, and full of love. Winner of the Book Lion Prize and published in nine languages, Bigger Than a Dream is one of those rare picture books that handles an impossible subject with lightness instead of weight. Belgian author Jef Aerts and Swedish-Dutch illustrator Marit Törnqvist — internationally acclaimed for her work with Astrid Lindgren — have made something that is far more than a grief resource. The illustrations move between dream and reality with warmth and a kind of floating quiet, giving children and adults alike a way into a conversation that most adults don't know how to start. Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer. For ages 4 and up — and for any grown-up who's been avoiding the question. Tender, Light, and Honest About the Hardest Thing Winner of the Book Lion Prize — Jef Aerts' first picture book, now published in nine languages. Told in first-person from the boy's perspective, giving young readers a narrator who is genuinely, recognizably a child working through something large. The bike ride adventure — partly airborne, visiting his sister's favorite places — keeps the tone carefree and imaginative rather than heavy or clinical. The sister's voice is warm and direct, not ghostly or frightening — she's the older sibling he never had, finally getting to be exactly that. Illustrated by Marit Törnqvist, whose work has been described as "technically astonishing" and "colorful, layered and full of emotion" — shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016. Törnqvist depicts a world suspended between dream and reality, giving children visual language for something that has no easy words. Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer. Not bibliotherapy — a work of art that earns its emotional effect rather than instructing children how to feel. Oversized format (8.2" x 10.3") gives the illustrations room to breathe and makes reading together natural.