Michael Rosen's Sad Book
- Publisher : Penguin Random House
- Publishing year : January 2011
- Binding : Paperback
- ISBN : 9781406317848
- Imprint : Walker Books
- Age Group : Early Reader
- Language : English
A heartbreakingly honest account of a father’s grief for his son from the illustrious pairing of two former Childr ...
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."
Michael Rosen held the post of Children's Laureate from 2007-2009. He is one of the best-known figures in the children's book world, renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. As an author and by selecting other writers' works for anthologies he has been involved with over 140 books.
Quentin Blake‘s first book, Patrick, was published in 1968 and was followed by classics such as Mister Magnolia, All Join In, and Clown. He is best known for illustrating Roald Dahl’s books. A patron of the Association of Illustrators, he was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1980 and the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002, and was the inaugural British Children’s Laureate from 1999 to 2001.
