Having volunteered in a Victoria hospice, Merrie-Ellen Wilcox frequently heard there was a need for a book about death for young readers. Each chapter of her After Life: Ways We Think About Death (Orca $24.95) includes a brief telling of a death legend, myth or historical summation from a different culture. Rivers play a role in the afterlife of many cultures. "The souls of the dead often have to cross a river before they enter the other realm of the afterlife... In Greek mythology, five rivers surrounded the underworld: Acheron (the river of woe). Cocytus (the river of lamentation). Phlegethon (the river of fire). Styx (the river of hatefulness) and Lethe (the river of forgetfulness). The souls of the dead drank from the River Lethe in order to forget their lives on earth." She has also written What's the Buzz? Keeping Bees in Flight (Orca 2015).

BOOKS:

Nature Out of Balance: How Invasive Species are Changing the Planet (Orca Footprints 2021) $19.95 0781459823952
After Life: Ways We Think About Death (Orca 2018) $24.95 9781459813908
What's the Buzz? Keeping Bees in Flight (Orca 2015) 9781459809604
Taking Care of Where We Live (Orca, 2024) $26.95 9781459835382

[BCBW 2024]