Title: Scout's Heaven
Author: Bibi Dumon Tak
Artist: Annemarie van Haeringen
Genre: Pets / Drama / Children's / Death / Family
Year Published: 2016
Year Read: 2018
Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Source: eARC (NetGalley)
Content Rating: Ages 5+ (Discussions about Death)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
I
would like to thank NetGalley and Eerdmans Books for
Young Readers for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest
review.
Now, I have read many children’s books that dealt with
the subject of death of a pet or a loved one, but I had never read a children’s
book quite as unique as Bibi Dumon Tak
and Annemarie van Haeringen’s book “Scout’s
Heaven,” which I got from NetGalley!
The story starts off with a family’s beloved dog
Scout, dying and the family ends up burying him after his death. While the family mourned for the loss of
their pet, Little Brother started asking questions about whether or not Scout
is now in Heaven and is happy there. At
first, the family was not sure how to answer Little Brother’s questions since
they were all still grieving over Scout’s death, but then a strange and
wonderous thing happens…
What
wonderous thing happened to the family and will they be able to cope with Scout’s
death?
Read
this book to find out!
Wow! I must admit that I was quite impressed with how
this book dealt with the subject of death in a children’s book and I think that
it handled it pretty well! Both Bibi Dumon Tak and Annemarie van
Haeringen did an excellent job at writing this book as this book is
extremely emotional to read through as I sympathized with the family’s efforts
to try to deal with the death of their pet.
I also felt sympathy for Little Brother as he was constantly asking his
family questions about Scout’s whereabouts after he died and I think that Little
Brother’s reactions to Scout’s death is pretty realistic to how a young child
would react to their pets or loved ones dying.
They would be asking questions about the concept of death and would be
wondering where their loved ones would go after their deaths.
The reason why I gave this book a four-star rating was
because I felt that the story was a bit too short and I wished that they
actually fleshed out the story a bit more so that way, we would be able to
learn more about what Scout was like when he was still alive and what kind of
activities the family did with him so that way, the news of Scout’s death would
have had a more emotional impact on the readers. Also, apparently the copy I got from NetGalley
did not have the artwork that was supposed to go with this story and even
though I still liked the story, I would have liked it better if I had received
a copy that had the artwork contained in it.
Overall, “Scout’s
Heaven” is a lovely book about learning how to deal with the death of a pet
and this is definitely a book that would be enjoyable to children both young
and old! I would recommend this book to
children ages five and up since the theme of death might upset some smaller
children.
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