Michael Rosen's Sad Book

A heartbreakingly honest account of a father’s grief for his son from the illustrious pairing of two former Children’s Laureates.

Very occasionally the term non-fiction has to stretch itself to accommodate a book that fits into no category at all. Michael Rosen''s Sad Book is such a book. It chronicles Michael''s grief at the death of his son Eddie from meningitis at the age of 19. A moving combination of sincerity and simplicity, it acknowledges that sadness is not always avoidable or reasonable and perfects the art of making complicated feelings plain. It wasn''t made like any other book either; Michael Rosen said of the text, " I wrote it at a moment of extreme feeling and it went straight down onto the page ... Quentin didn''t illustrate it, he ''realized'' it. He turned the text into a book and as a result showed me back to myself. No writer could ask and get more than that." And Quentin Blake says that the picture of Michael "being sad but trying to look happy" is the most difficult drawing he''s ever done... "a moving experience."

Sad things happen to everyone, and sometimes people feel sad for no reason at all. What makes Michael Rosen sad is thinking about his son, Eddie, who died suddenly at the age of eighteen. The author writes about his sadness, how it affects him, and some of the things he does to cope with it--like telling himself that everyone has sad stuff (not just him) and trying each day to do something he can be proud of. Expressively illustrated by the extraordinary Quentin Blake, this is a very personal story that speaks to everyone, from children to parents to grandparents, teachers to grief counselors. Whether or not you have known what it's like to feel deeply sad, the truth of this book will surely touch you.