THE HEART AND THE BOTTLE

The Heart and the Bottle

Written By: Oliver Jeffers

Penguin Group, 2010

31 Pages

Fiction

            I chose to read The Heart and the Bottle because I was interested to see what the story was about since the title was not display on the cover. Turned out the story heard a deep meaning that a displayed title could not have possibly captured. The book begins when the character was a little girl. As a young girl she had an open heart and mind to everything about the world until one day she comes across an empty chair. From that empty chair the little girl loses her heart and places it in a bottle where she knows it will be safe. Years later, the girl, now a woman, comes across a little girl who still has an open heart and desires again to regain her heart. However, she cannot seem to get it out of the bottle so she asks the little girl for help.

The illustrations in the story tell the depth of the story. Through the illustrations readers can see that when she had her heart free she was with her grandfather and the empty chair was where he had read to her. As the illustrations continue you can see that what makes her lose her heart is the loss of her grandfather and now his chair is empty. The illustration combined with the text is what tells the story and it brought tears to my eyes when I saw that empty chair.  

No awards were granted to this story, but it definitely won one in my mind because of how touching it is. I do not believe younger grades will grasp the meaning nor pick up on how the illustrations and text work together, but a lesson for that could be taught to them. I primarily would use this story in a classroom to character build and see if students can relate to the loss of someone very important to them.