Awarded a Zilveren Griffel 2014
Winner Boekenleeuw 2014
Prize of the public Boekenleeuw 2014
Empfehlungsliste Katholischen Kinderbuchpreis 2014
White Raven 2014 (Internationale Jugendbibliothek)
Nomination Kinder- en Jeugdjury Vlaanderen 2015
DUDO 2014 Konrad-Duden-Schule uit Bad Hersfeld

Bigger than a dream
Querido, january 2013
Illustrated by Marit Törnqvist

What do you do when the house
falls silent because everyone misses
your big sister? Bigger Than a Dream is a comforting book about how to understand loss.

A boy hears a girl calling him one
morning. Is it his sister, the sister in the faded photograph on the wall? He never knew her, because she died long before he was born. But now she’s calling her little brother because she wants to go out on her bike. It’s the beginning of an unforgettable adventure.

​I know that you can do plenty of things when you’re dead. You can bring conversations to a halt and make people cry. Your name is always spoken in a solemn voice and just thinking about you makes people fall into each other’s arms. But can you really go out on your bike?

More about the work of Marit Törnqvist: www.marittornqvist.com

Translations

Bigger than a Dream is published worldwide in 10 languages. Swedish (Rabén & Sjögren), German (Das Freies Geistesleben), Japanese (Tokuma Shoten)., Chinese (Simplified), Danish (Turbine), Korean, Perzian (Read with Me, Iran), English (Levine Querido) and Italian (Camelozampa).

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'Jef Aerts and Marit Törnqvist have created a beautiful book about death. It is emotional without being sentimental, stepping smoothly back and forth between magic and the literalness of childhood. Aerts chooses words that are poetic but never too nebulous, and always just right. It is astonishing to see how he manages to make the mystery of mortality so tangible and deeply affecting. Perhaps most impressive of all, however, is the striking and rare symbiosis between the text and the subdued, atmospheric and circumspect drawings. Törnqvist’s rather dreamy style is perfectly suited to a sensitive subject like a sister’s death. She captures the atmosphere completely with perfectly judged colours and brushstrokes.'