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Title: The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Erik Blegvad, Judith Viorst ISBN: 0-689-71203-0 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 30 September, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.41 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent book for helping kids with the loss of a pet
Comment: When our four year old son's fish died, we were surprised by the strength of his reaction. His nursery school teacher recommended "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney". We all loved it very much, and I believe that Judith Viorst has presented young (and old) kids a model for processing loss and learning how to mourn and let go. She touches on religious questions without trying to answer them, but leaves room for each family to have their own interpretation of death. And as in all her writing her characters are delightfully realistic and fun. We buy this book for friends whenever a pet dies.
Rating: 5
Summary: Touching and Comforting
Comment: This book is absolutely, without a doubt, a great book for younger children to cope with the loss of a pet. This book, however, would not be appropriate for the loss of a human life. The author lets the reader know that it is OK to feel sad, to not want to watch TV, or to eat or to go outside and play. But most important of all, that it is OK to cry and feel sad.
The mother and father hold a backyard funeral for Barney, the beloved deceased cat, and the little boy comes up with nine good things to say about Barney. Afterwards, when they plant flowers, he can come up with the tenth good thing about Barney.
Older children will find this too 'babyish', I believe, but this book was perfect for my younger children when our beloved dog, Snowball died. Our vet gave us this book, along with the Rainbow Bridge poem. It was very comforting.
The book conveys that we have to honor the grieving and the questions of children as they mourn their beloved pet, whether it is a fish, a dog, a cow, a horse, or whatever pet is important to them. The value of a 'ceremony' is just as important for closure.
I highly recommend this tender book.
Rating: 3
Summary: You don't wanna know the 10th good thing
Comment: I finally read this book after years and years of hearing it hyped as the perfect book to help a child deal with the loss of a pet, so I expected a lot.
It's not a bad book. I've always liked Judith Viorst's wry voice that seems to capture children's unsure moments so perfectly, and "...Barney" has a lot of that.
The particular details of the story are even good -- I love that the boy's mother wraps Barney in a piece of cloth before they bury him. I love that the boy's best friend attends the funeral to hear him recite the nine best things about Barney. I love the little argument they have after the funeral, about whether Barney is really in heaven, or if he's just in the ground.
But the book takes a jarring twist when the boy decides what the 10th good thing about Barney is. The 10th good thing is basically that Barney is dead and rotting. OK, OK -- dead and rotting and therefore helping flowers to grow. Life will come from his death, and yes, that is the message.
But really. Basically the 10th good thing about Barney is that he's dead and rotting. I'm a fairly morbid person, very interested in the process of death and decomposition, but I think the ending of this story is too morbid to present to young children at the end of this otherwise sweet, sentimental story. It doesn't seem to fit.
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Title: I'll Always Love You by HANS WILHELM ISBN: 0517572656 Publisher: Dragonfly Pub. Date: 12 December, 1988 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: 20th Aniversary Edition by Leo Buscaglia ISBN: 0805071954 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Sad Isn't Bad: A Good-Grief Guidebook for Kids Dealing With Loss by Michaelene Mundy, R. W. Alley ISBN: 0870293214 Publisher: Abbey Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Lifetimes by Bryan Mellonie ISBN: 0553344021 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1983 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: When Dinosaurs Die by Laurie Krasny & Marc Brown ISBN: 0316119555 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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