Good Things About “Barney”
This past weekend School Girl brought home one of her books for the Accelerated Reader program. (Incidentally, we’re all about that here – if you’re unfamiliar with it, go here to find out more about the software program.) It was The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst. As part of her homework, she had to read it at least once over the weekend in preparation for her computer test this week.
It was an absolutely beautiful book about dealing with the loss of a pet. I loved it because the narrator, a young boy, wasn’t told not to be sad or miss his cat Barney. I also loved it because it didn’t presuppose in the existence of an afterlife; we don’t know, and I don’t feel that we can know, whether or not an afterlife exists. The book comes right out and says that, for which I’m very grateful. I also loved the way the boy’s parents didn’t talk down to him or try to gloss over what had happened. Just a beautiful book, dealing with an incredibly difficult subject.
Evil Dad and I have been talking about that book this weekend. I’ve already told a couple of people why, and I wish I could tell you why, but I can’t bring myself to do that right now. Best to hang in there with the whole self-delusional thing…
There’s another one that’s lovely that’s more for helping kids understand someone ELSE’s grief called Jim’s Dog Muffins.
http://www.amazon.com/Jims-Dog-Muffins-Miriam-Cohen/dp/0440411246
Sorry to hear that the Barney book may be appropriate in your home soon.
That looks really good too – thanks for that link.
It’s not unexpected, but Evil Dad and I have been preparing ourselves for it for a couple of months now. This weekend was particularly bad. Thanks. *hugs*
I’ll have to look for that one… Brendan is still distraught about the loss of our cat Byron a couple of years ago (an almost-always-inside cat who dashed out on a running-behind day, and who was mortally injured by a car). I think he’s still working it all through.
*tight hugs to you all… rough times ahead require extras*
It should be a pretty easy read for him, I’d think. I really was pleasantly suprised – both about how the subject was handled (didn’t know that Viorst was a nonbeliever) and that her teacher would ask them to read it (don’t ask). It’s really, really good, and good for generating discussion about death of any kind.
School Girl collapsed in sobs yesterday when she started talking about the “book report” (just a paper with some prompts, to get them thinking about story retells) and what her favorite part of the story was. So she kind of knows what’s going on, and that the end’s near for our dog.