Sting

(ARC was provided to read and review.)

The author's son, Malo, was very ill and in a lot of pain, when he was 3. On one of their numerous trips to the hospital, father and son listened to the song "King of Pain" by The Police which was played on the radio.
Sting wrote the lyrics of the song post-separation from his wife and he tried to bring across the emotional turmoil and heartbreak he felt.

Malo immediately understood what it meant to be the King of Pain and the song gave him a way of show more expressing how much he was scared and affected by his illness. The author felt inspired to combine the song's lyrics with illustrations and put his professional skills as a Professor for graphic design to good use. The result is an excellent picture book.

The book's illustrations are colourful, but minimalistic. Geometric shapes, mostly triangles, show us a fossil that's trapped or a salmon frozen in a waterfall. Not only does the artwork leave room for interpretation, for me there's no doubt, it works. That's how pain looks like.

It doesn't matter, if you are suffering from a broken heart or a severe illness, pain can have many forms, colours and various degrees of intensity and we all experience it differently, every time.
The book will help parents, carers and teachers to speak with young children about pain and if they suffer from it, how much they feel affected by it.
There's a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today is an excellent and very helpful tool when you have to ask your child "What does your pain feel like? Can you tell me?"
Highly recommended. show less

Exceptionally well written, A+. I had hoped to learn Sting's music background, choices, & influences. Why the bass, how did he develop his unique singing voice, and above all, where did the reggae come from? Instead, this memoir is about the network of people and relationships in his life. Told with panache, heart, and honesty. It was a genuine treat to hang w/ Sting for this read. I also appreciated the odd Easter egg.

Sting considered this book of lyrics as poetry and didn't know if it will stand up as such. In my mind probably not, but who cares.
All The Police and Sting's solo songs that I like I already know by heart so I didn't need this book for that. Each of the albums have introductions, as well as most of the well known songs. Sting is from NewCastle which I didn't know beforehand. Except for Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, all the songs from Ghost in the Machine (my favorite) were written show more in Ireland. He says that the album Synchronicity was a reference to Jung's concept of meaningful coincidence. I don't know what that concept is. In Synchronicity II the book lyric has "Of a Scottish Lake" when he speaks more correctly 'Of a Scottish Loch' which is what lakes are called in Scotland.
Sting says that he has no "faith" in any religious tradition. Every Breath You Take has its opposite in If You Love Somebody Set Them Free. He says that King of Pain was a generated literally while moping and sitting under a tree. Born in the '50s was about the day when Kennedy was assassinated and Sting's mother said it was the Communists. She may have been right. I don't like Roxanne but Sting says that he is paid to sing it with new feeling each time he does sing it. Sting is a pop artist, in my mind, and has made a fortune with his talents. When I think 'Sting' I think of pop music (radio play list) second only to maybe Duran Duran. When I saw them in San Francisco some girl threw a SF police officers hat up on stage. Sting picked it up but not recognizing that it was a police hat and that his band was called The Police hesitated putting it on at first. He did, at last, and then threw it back out into the crowd after a song or so.
I'm not the greatest Sting fan but this book is great for even ordinary fans like me. I once saw a copy Paul McCartney's lyrics as a book but since it had none of his commentary, I didn't get it. [Single color pictures, index by song title, index by first line.] show less

Wie erklärt man Schmerz? Wie sieht er aus? Der kleine Malo muss sich regelmäßig im Krankenhaus schmerzhaften Untersuchungen unterziehen. Sein Vater begleitet ihn dabei. Auf einer der gemeinsamen Fahrten hören sie sich im Autoradio 'King of Pain' von Sting an. Und so findet Malo Worte für das, was er erdulden muss. Sven Völker, der Vater von Malo, übersetzt die Wörter in Bilder von hoher grafischer Konsequenz. So entstand ein besonderes Bilderbuch, das zugleich berührt und fasziniert.