Turkish / Turkey
Eyvah Kalbim Kırıldı!
(My heart is broken!)
Yemenici, Elif
(text/illus.)
İstanbul: Redhouse Kidz Çocuk Kitapları, 2016. – [36] p.
ISBN 978-605-9781-16-9
Joy | Sadness | Picture book
Reading age: 5+
White Ravens issue: 2016
This picture book tells of an emotional tragedy: Little Kalben wants to play ball with the boys, but they leave her out and, as if that weren’t enough, they knock her ice cream cone from her hand. The girl is filled with a deep sadness that will not go away. Animals shall help her fill her heart with joy once more. She tries to swim like the fish and drink milk like the cat in the garden, but nothing helps, and Kalben fears growing old with a broken heart. A seagull gives her a shell as a present, and it whispers that she should imagine what brings her the most joy in life. To give others joy – that is the solution Kalben hits upon to become happy again. Young author and illustrator Elif Yemenici (b. 1989) illustrates this melancholic story with unusual pictures. The scenes seem enlarged as if by a magnifying lens and distorted as if within a snow globe.