Michael Rosen's Sad Book (2004)

My son brought this home from school and I adored it. It's a beautifully written and illustrated description of grief and depression that manages to be simple but also deep and resonant. Wonderful. ( )

Heartwrenching. Beautifully sad and , and still somehow comforting. ( )

I strongly enjoyed this book for three main reasons. First, this book is not like any others. This story touches on the subject of sadness. I feel most authors are scared to write about such a touchy subject. This book makes readers go to a place of sadness and pushes them to feel the emotion that the author does. Secondly, this book is easy to relate to from a personal view. Being a person who has faced many obstacles in life, I can relate to Micheal Rosen's opinion on the feeling of sadness. He discusses what he does when he is sad. He also shows what he looks like physically when he is sad. Finally, I enjoyed the point of view the story is written in. This book is written and told in a first person point of view. At the beginning of the story, Micheal Rosen states,"What makes me the most sad is when I think about my son Eddie. He died.". I appreciated that he wrote this story based off of a real life experience. He grants us readers his personal thoughts and emotions. I feel the main idea of this story is that everyone has sadness. Sometimes it is easy to spot, but other times people can hide it very well. Understand that is it alright to feel sad. ( )

Sad Book is a true story about how the Author, Michael Rosen, is dealing with the death of his son. This book really does show many facets of what is feels like to grieve the loss of a loved one. Sad Book even begins with an illustrated face, colorful and smiling, stating that Rosen is sad but pretending to be happy to make those around him more comfortable. That is a very relatable and honest side of grief, comforting those around you, and could lead to some great discussions. The illustrations really help depict the different emotions and actions of the story. For example, when Rosen is reminiscing about memories of his son, the illustrations are colorful and happy. But when he speaks about sad, the illustrations are muted, gray, and not as detailed. The story does become slightly more positive towards the end, but it does just end with a sad and gray image of Rosen by a candle. That is also very true of grief, it never goes away, it just becomes less and less dark and sad as time goes by. I do think this book is a good read and could lead to some interesting discussions, but it must be considered for the right audience. I'm not sure this book is for all young readers since it is so honest, but it could definitely help a student going through a difficult time. ( )

A book for children of all ages, good for older children and even relevant for us grown ups. The story illustrates the range of emotions when someone you love dies. A powerful illustration of grief.