Read more
'I cannot recommend this beautiful picture book about depression by Debi Gliori highly enough. It's a masterpiece.' - David Walliams, bestselling children's author
SHORTLISTED for the 2018 KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL
A UK nomination for IBBY's List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2019
A groundbreaking picture book on depression with stunning illustrations.
With stunning black and white illustration and deceptively simple text, author and illustrator Debi Gliori examines how depression affects one's whole outlook upon life, and shows that there can be an escape - it may not be easy to find, but it is there. Drawn from Debi's own experiences and with a moving testimony at the end of the book explaining how depression has affected her and how she continues to cope, Debi hopes that by sharing her own experience she can help others who suffer from depression, and to find that subtle shift that will show the way out.
'I have used dragons to represent depression. This is partly because of their legendary ability to turn a once fertile realm into a blackened, smoking ruin and partly because popular mythology shows them as monstrous opponents with a tendency to pick fights with smaller creatures. I'm not particularly brave or resourceful, and after so many years battling my beasts, I have to admit to a certain weariness, but I will arm-wrestle dragons for eternity if it means that I can help anyone going through a similar struggle.'
'Debi Gliori is amazing. Her pictures offer people an insight into depression that words often struggle to reach. She makes visible the invisible. And I for one want to thank her for that.' - Matt Haig, bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive
About the author
Debi Gliori wurde in Glasgow geboren und studierte am Edinburgh College of Art Design and Illustration. Sie arbeitet als freie Autorin und Illustratorin und hat bereits an die zwanzig Bilderbücher verfasst. Debi Gliori lebt mit Ehemann und drei Kindern in der Nähe von Edinburgh.
Summary
A groundbreaking picture book on depression with stunning and powerful illustrations.
Foreword
A groundbreaking picture book on depression with stunning illustrations
SHORTLISTED for the 2018 KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL
Additional text
Night Shift by Debi Gliori is an impressive, well considered articulation of what it means and how it feels to be depressed. A sophisticated picture book forged from fog, shaped from shadows and drawn out of darkness, it gives voice to that which often remains voiceless and can isolate. Listlessness and lack of colour is captured by the black and white illustrations, punctuated occasionally by volatile red. There's a looming, oppressive mood as muscular, hollow-eyed dragons - almost parasitic in nature - become metaphors for the condition. The triumph of the book is the way it uses verbal and visual language to shine a light onto the condition, enabling this to be better explained, shared and to contribute an endpoint to some of the loneliness and stigma that often accompanies it, offering some hope without losing power or falling into platitudes
Report
I'm not sure how to review Night Shift without making it personal. Stories that focus on depression are, much like depression themselves, deeply personal. I can't read this book, look at the illustrations, without making comparisons to my own experiences. So sometimes I will think "yes this is me" and other times "no I don't feel like that". Depression is unique to the individual and while traits can be shared or similar for many I don't think it's possible for one story to ever be universal. This might come across as negative but it really isn't. Debi Gliori's has written and drawn a beautiful and dark map. It is because of the illustrations (which I think have a bigger impact because they aren't tied down by words) that this book connects so much. Night Shift is very effective and for a book so contained it's powerful. Luna's Little Library
