Inappropriate for children
I am a Doctor of Psychology student specializing in work with children. I help to do our program's major research and teaching on children and adolescents. We borrow this book from the library every semester (because we don't want to contribute to its sales!) to show classes the developmentally INAPPROPRIATE things that are out there for children. This is NOT a good book for children in that the pictures are disturbing (though some kids do like them) but the words, in particular, are beyond the emotional maturity of children. Personally, I think it's a bit scary even as an adult, but the best word I can use to describe it from a young child's perspective is "burdensome." Only adolescents have the capacity to deal with something so dreary, and frankly, even then, I'd rather show them something with a message of hope behind the sadness. It's crazy that this book received an award--apparently those who decided were not child psychologists.
Sad Book Soothes Spirit
The author knows how it feels to grieve. Adults as well as children will benefit from the author's experience with the grieving process and his attemps to move through life with a heavy heart. Feeling all alone with one's loss is so difficult. Michael Rosen lets the reader into his world and the reader is somehow comforted by this admission. The illustrations are funny and sweet and sad all at once. There is some soft light in all the darkness and Michael Rosen's book allows the glow.
Simply a wonderful book -- for grownups
Just a fine book.
Buy it for your ex-wife who feels blue because her car broke down and she can't afford to get it fixed. Buy it for the fellow in your therapy group who was passed over for a promotion. Buy it for your old college chum who can't get over that gal who dumped him for a better-looking guy.
Buy it for any adult for whom you have fond feelings.
But don't buy it for a kid. Unless you're a child psychologist and it's YOUR kid.
Great, wonderful book..but not appropriate for young children.
As a budding child psychologist, I have to disagree with the sentiments of many that have reviewed this book. In fact, we discussed it in depth in our training seminar. Yes, it does a wonderful job of painting a very clear picture of what depression and deep grief look and feel like. However, it is not developmentally appropriate for children under the age of 12 or 13, at least. Its concepts and ways of describing grief and suffering are on a more abstract level that will be lost on young children, and which may be more confusing than helpful.
Since I would not stop for death...
Picture books that help children deal with death tend, by and large, to be about animals. There's, "Dog Heaven" and "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney", and other books along these lines. "Charlotte's Web" even comes to mind. But try coming up with a children's book that'll help kids deal with the death of another child and the well begins to run dry. Even if you do find something, it'll tend to be along the lines of books like (I kid you not), "Sad Isn't Bad (Elf-Help Books For Kids)". Credit Michael Rosen with penning a deeply personal and moving book to help children that springs from his own personal loss. Books that deal with death almost never are so well-written that they win awards. But here is one sad book that proves the exception to the rule.
You open the book and there's the picture of a man grinning from ear to ear. The words say, "This is me being sad". And right off the bat kids begin to understand that being sad isn't just a face with tears or a downturned mouth. Reading on we see how occasionally Michael Rosen is consumed with sadness over the death of his son Eddie. We see pictures of Eddie growing up, with a final blank one where his life was at an end. Mostly, though, this book is about dealing with the loss of someone young. Michael talks about how he discusses his pain with friends or just thinks about it by himself, "Because it's mine. And no one else's". Sometimes Michael feels like doing crazy things because he's sad and sometimes depression will hit him in the middle of a sunny day out of the blue. From here, the book tells the reader how to deal with being sad. "I tell myself that being sad isn't the same as being horrible. I'm sad, not bad". He does things that make himself feel better and talks about how misery can hit anyone anytime. Then, there's a gradual lightening to the pages. Michael can think about the people he's lost, the good parts of Eddie's life, and birthdays. The final images of the book are Rosen's thoughts about lots and lots of candles lit and glowing. It ends with a two-page spread of Michael staring at a beautiful glowing flame and finding a kind of peace in its beauty.
No, it's not exactly a great read-aloud for large groups of kids. "Michael Rosen's Sad Book" instead works on a very intimate level. You feel privileged that the author chose to include you in his grief. For kids that are dealing with the death of a friend or sibling, Rosen's book works because he's feeling the same thing that the reader is. He understands how awful it is to be swamped by grief. Best of all, the book doesn't end on a slap-happy note that's out of synch with he rest of the story. There isn't some cheesy image of Eddie waving from heaven and Michael doesn't suddenly become "cured" of his depression by the book's end. Without directly discussing it, he just shows how this sadness won't necessarily go away. Just that its bite may lessen over time.
Illustrator Quentin Blake can undoubtedly pick and choose his projects at this point. As the receiver of the first British Children's Laureate (and having his very own official Quentin Blake Europe School in Berlin), this is the cream of the children's picture book crop. His illustrations have often been paired with authors like Roald Dahl or Joan Aiken to take the sting out of what would otherwise be somewhat disturbing works. Here, however, he's abandoned his customary wackiness in favor of a newfound stillness. These pictures are just watercolors and inks, but they work perfectly in tandem with this tale. Some pages are just full grey washes that swath our narrator in a multi-layered funk. The final image in this book is undoubtedly one of Blake's most powerful, reflecting the author's stillness and a receding of the grey gloom about him.
Unlike most dealin'-with-death books out there, "Michael Rosen's Sad Book" is appropriate for all kids, regardless of whether or not they know a fellow child who has died. It's good for kids to understand what death is and how it can hurt even the strongest of adults. "Sad Book" is not a one trick pony but a moving effigy to one man's son. It expands our understanding of what a picture book can do. This book is a necessary read.
(10 reviews)
