A while back I found the companion book to Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. Therefore, I figured I should see how the whole thing started and got a copy of the book from my library. After finishing it, I think that The Sad Book is a well done book on dealing with grief, but the second book, Where Are You, Eddie? (coming in Summer 2026) was more detailed and the stronger read of the two. With that said, I feel that The Sad Book could be for a younger child and Eddie’s book for the older and adult reader.
It is not the usual action where the protagonist goes to school or dentist or someplace and then has a sad feeling and deals with it, but this is more of a poetic journey where sadness is already there and the narrator is talking about it. They tell what it is, when it happens and things seen, felt, done. It is a poetic prose telling, as if Sadness was having a memoir or a biography told about it, but not one that goes into a “deep dive” about it.
Quentin Blake’s illustrations set the tone to the overall story. The cover gives an idea of their work (if you are not familiar with it), so you are not thinking it is going to be overly happy. Of course, the title tells you that, but sometimes we might have a “sad book” that ends on a happy note, this ends more of a hopeful but not completely perfect note. It is artistic and even the art lacks the action of a traditional picture book, therefore making the art work well for illustrating it.