Questions Asked

"Where does the world come from?," the interrogative narrator of this thoughtful Norwegian picture-book asks, going on to pose a long string of similar questions about the nature of the world and universe, our role in it as human beings, and our relationship to those around us, and to those no

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longer with us. The nature of time, the possible existence of angels and/or ghosts, the question of what the world will look like in the distant future, these are all among the 'questions asked.'

Originally published in Norway as Det spørs, this thoughtful little book comes from the pen of Josten Gaarder, author of the acclaimed philosophical novel, Sophie's World. Like that earlier work for older readers, in Questions Asked Gaardner is interested in the big issues, and his young narrator raises many questions that philosophers have struggled with for millennia. The accompanying artwork by Turkish-Norwegian illustrator Akin Düzakin is absolutely beautiful, expanding the textual narrative (which is, after all, simply a set of questions) into a real story, as it quickly becomes evident that the young narrator is struggling with some sort of loss. The artwork hints, through its depictions of the boy's memories of playing with a companion (most likely, a twin brother), and then his solitary journey with a box of treasured mementos, a journey in which he is followed by some sort of spirit, that the narrator is being prompted to ask these questions by the death of someone very close to him. That added level of meaning gives the book extra poignancy. Recommended to anyone looking for children's books to start a philosophical and/or theological conversation with young people, or for picture-books that address (albeit indirectly) death and loss.

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