Children's Book Teaches Kids 'Death Is Wrong'

Image: Mashable composite. iStock, perysty

By Rebecca Hiscott2014-03-16 16:25:56 UTC

When Gennady Stolyarov II was five years old, living in Belarus as the Soviet Union teetered on the brink of collapse, he asked his mother what happens to people when they grow up.

"They go to school," she answered.

And then?

"They work and get married."

And then? And then?

Eventually, his mother ran out of answers. "And then they die," she said.

So begins Stolyarov's Death Is Wrong, a children's book that describes the author's struggle with the concept of death. The narrative refutes the notion that death is the inevitable conclusion of life. Stolyarov hopes it will teach children that bodily decline is, in fact, a state that can and must be overcome through technological progress.

Referring to his first encounter with the concept of death, Stolyarov tells Mashable, "I was bewildered. Why do innocent people who have done nothing wrong deserve the death penalty?"

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Children's Book Teaches Kids 'Death Is Wrong'