”We Gotta Get Outta’ This Place”: THE NEXT PLACE

What kind of a book is it that is aimed at little kids from four to eight years old but a person in his fifties can pick it up and it blows him away because it is so beautiful?

Maybe I’m starting my second childhood prematurely; I don’t know, but I found The Next Place to be an absolutely stunning little book full of hope and glory about living and, moreover, about transcending life itself.

I stumbled on to this book when I was in a Waldenbooks recently looking for a book to give to my wife. I was passing by the children’s book section and I saw this book with a mystical picture of the sky, the moon, and the sun on the cover that said “The Next Place,” and I picked it up and started reading/viewing it. It was different, and I ended up buying it.

The first thing you notice about it is that it communicates about 95% of its message visually, which is a plus for me since I am a sort of Voyeur Of The World and I collect tons of images, photographic and painting-wise; mainly landscapes, sometimes people. The book is full of mystical sky-scapes, as it were, or ethereal-scapes, or something. But set into it in swirls and whirligigs is a running poem about forever-ness.

Here’s a sample: ”The next place I go/ won’t really be a place at all./ There won’t be any seasons- summer, winter or fall-/ Nor a Monday, Nor a Friday, Nor December, Nor July./ And the seconds will be standing still…/ while the hours hurry by.”

That thought is set against evocative images of the universe spinning by before your eyes, all set like a wheel in eternity.

Later, I found out that some people say this is a good book to read when you are grieving over someone’s death, for it will seem to some about an “afterlife.” I found it to be more about the “innerlife” and it seemed to me a book about releasing, letting go, and finding shelter deep inside the spirit.

It’s not a terribly long book…only seventeen pages. But there is something magical, and deeply moving in the experience of those few pages, like the feeling you get looking into the meaning of The Tibetan Book of the Dead or the Eighth Chapter of the Book of Romans. It’s like a breath of wind that carries you out beyond the edge of the universe.

A children’s book? Of course. A child with a mind uncorrupted by maturity probably knows perfectly well what a book like this is all about. But there are others who may find it appealing as well: someone who is grieving over a lost love or a lost loved one, someone who needs a break from the intense schedule of their lives, someone who loves simple art, someone who likes light poetry, or all of the above.

How long has it been since you have walked down inside yourself and found a beautiful place there with hope for the future? If it’s been a while, you might want to seek out this little book. It’s a book you can come back to like a familiar mantra, and within it you will find your soul given wings.


The Next Place by Warren Hanson
$15.95 USA Dollars
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover - 36 pages (September 1997)
Waldman House Pr; ISBN: 0931674328 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.39 x 9.31 x 11.35