Anna Augustyniak’s book uses the metaphor of a puddle and disintegration, in order to invite children to a tender conversation about the problem of depression, which affects more and more people, including increasingly younger children.
The author’s narrator is a small boy called Kuba. He has to confront a new and difficult situation when his older brother – who ought to defend, teach and support him – one day liquefies. Literally. From that moment on he lives in a bucket, and the entire family focuses on finding him help and support. It is not only a story of illness, but above all of closeness and love. It reminds us how to support a child fighting with depression, but also, in a moving way, shines a light on the need to be together with the problem, and the need for sensitivity to the emotions of all family members.
Agnieszka Karp-Szymańska
