Adios, Ratoncito!

by Robie H. Harris, Alberto Jiménez Rioja, Jan Ormerod (Illustrator)

Angry and upset when his pet mouse dies, a little boy learns that it is okay to be mad, and as he prepares to bury his friend, he discovers that memories and sadness are all part of the grieving process, in a poignant picture book that will help little ones deal with loss.

Genres: Picture Books, Death, Grief, Fiction, Childrens, Family, Parenting

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Robie H. Harris has written many award-winning books for children of all ages, including the definitive Family Library about sexuality: IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL, IT'S SO AMAZING!, and IT'S NOT THE STORK! She lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the closest thing to a perfect death-of-a-pet book I've ever seen. No euphemisms, no metaphors, abundant acknowledgement of the validity of a small child's feelings - both sorrow and anger.

Wonderful pencil and watercolor drawings by perhaps my favorite realistic illustrator of all time - Jan Ormorod - are the perfect accompaniment to Robie Harris's sympathetic but no-nonsense text.

[Jarula (Χαρούλα) Souroulla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Άκουσα για το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο σε ένα σεμινάριο σχετικά με την διαχείριση του πένθους του παιδιού μέσα στο σχολικό πλαίσιο. Είναι όντως εξαιρετικό και απόλυτα ειλικρινές. Πιστεύω ότι είναι ένα από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που μπορείς να χρησιμοποιήσεις με ένα παιδί, για να συζητήσεις σχετικά με την απώλεια και το πένθος. Η εικονογράφηση είναι πολύ προσεγμένη και απόλυτα ταιριαστή.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that does not address what happens to the soul after we die. It doesn't discuss things like heaven, and whether mice go there. I prefer books that don't talk about heaven, so that was a plus. I think that's better left up the the individual family to discuss. The book addresses what those of us who are left behind deal with.
There are some helpful parts to the book. Losing someone you love can lead to denial, anger, sadness, and a need to do something to honor the one who was lost and deal with your grief. This is shown in a way that can help young children process this. However, I have mixed feelings about a lot of what the book does. I don't believe someone who has died will be experiencing things like hunger or boredom anymore. I see nothing wrong with burying a mouse with food and toys, but I do see something wrong in suggesting that otherwise the poor dead creature would have been suffering without these things. I discussed with C that when someone dies, they will NOT be feeling things like hunger or boredom anymore.
I thought the ending was very appropriate - it honors the feelings we have when we lose someone. You can never replace someone, and we shouldn't try, though you can find new mice/pets/people to love, when you are ready.
In our family's recent losses, C has not been able to hold or bury anyone after they died, so the process of an actual burial in the book was not itself helpful to understanding our experiences, though the process of having some kind of memorial is still relevant for us.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, our culture often sees pets, especially small ones, as replaceable. A child’s very real grief over the loss of a small pet may be belittled. Goodbye Mousie is a breath of fresh air in this regard.

The text acknowledges even grief for a small pet is difficult and legitimate. A young boy wakes up one morning and finds his pet mouse has passed away during the night. The parents’ patience and sympathy over a child’s grief is depicted wonderfully. They allow him work through his feelings in his own way.

I was also pleased to see the author realize that replacement of a living being is not immediate or required. Many pet loss books depict their main characters joyfully purchasing a new pet at the conclusion. In Mousie, the final page shows the boy coloring along with the thought that maybe he’ll get another mouse someday, but not quite yet. This helps steer readers away from the conclusion that animals are merely interchangeable objects that can be quickly replaced if one “breaks.”

I have known people who turn the death of a child’s pet into a family joke in order to convince the child that the pet is not worth crying over and can be easily replaced. As evidenced by Mousie and other sensitive pet loss books, thank goodness some take a different view.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: A little boy wakes up one morning and tickles his pet mouse's tummy, but Mousie doesn't move. So begins this story for the very youngest about the death of a pet. Daddy tells the boy that Mousie is dead, but the child prefers to think that Mousie is just very, very tired. Slowly, after lots of tears and many questions, the boy comes to terms with the fact that his pet is gone. He plans for the funeral by painting a picture of himself to put inside the shoebox that will hold Mousie. He will get another pet, but not right away. Ormerod's honest pictures, black-pencil line drawings with watercolor washes on buff-colored paper, capture the emotions of the situation and chronicle the boy's move from disbelief to acceptance. The endpapers, on which Mousie cavorts, show what a delightful little pet he was. The choice of a first-person narrative has a tendency to distance listeners because the boy often sounds older than he looks. Still, this covers all the bases of a frequently asked-for subject. (Thanks Amazon)

Written By: Robie H. Harris

Audience: Grades K-3

Social Issues: Death, Acceptance

Uses: Read Aloud, Shared Reading, Guided Reading

Awards/Recommended By: Kirstin Bratt Award

[Hannah Grosse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was kind of sad, but also really good, and super cute. You really get into the point of view of the child as you share in his torment of discovering death. The illustrations are done really well, giving you an accurate idea of the look on the poor child's face as he realizes he will never be able to play with Mousie again. Also, I personally really appreciate the fact that this poor, mourning child is wearing mouse slippers. It just goes to show how deep his love was for this mouse, who is now gone.

[geraly · Rating 4 out of 5]

borrowed this book from the library to read with my very anxious 10yo who is fearful and sad about the passing of a relative... the book is lovely, honest and simple in talking about the death of a pet. the language and perspective is probably directed to a preschooler and is definitely pet focused. not quite what i was looking for but a good book nonetheless. would highly recommend for a young child who loses a pet.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written from the child's perspective, a little boy goes through the grieving process when he wakes up to find his pet mouse died during the night. He doesn't want to accept it at first and then begins to prepare the mouse to be buried.

Cute illustrations and realisitic story. Good for a child that has lost a pet that isn't a dog or a cat.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet and sad story about saying goodbye to a beloved pet. It's a good way to discuss the death of a pet, or death as a concept for that matter, with younger children. It's never easy to broach the topic and especially with pets, it's an important topic. We really liked this story and thought it was a nice way to say goodbye to a friend.

[Melanie Wiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for the young child who's lost a pet or even for a child who has to deal with losing a family member or close friend to death. Puts death in perspective on kid-friendly and understandable terms.

[Alida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translation of "Goodbye Mousie". Everything alive now will die and explaining this concept to a child is handled very well in this book. I highly recommended as a way to open that discussion with a child.

[Pei · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helps kids to understand sad concept of losing a pet, from a young child's perspective.The prose is very nice, and possesses an easy-to understand format. And each page is filled with beautiful color illustrations

[sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This heartbreaking children's book will have you in tears all throughout the book. It teaches a great lesson for everyone that death is something we will all face some day, and we can either embrace it or let it take over our lives.

[Kristen McBee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good depiction of the anger and sadness that we feel when we lose someone we love. She mentions how we sometimes think our loved one will still be here, say when we wake up in the morning, but he will not be. And no sugaring it up with heaven. Honest and forthright.

[Jo]

Lib. a boy grieves for his dead pet Mousie helps to bury him. and begins to come to terms with his loss.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book to share with a child dealing with the death of a pet. Developmentally appropriate.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! It deals with the death of a pet mouse, and the boy's grieving process. I love the sketches of the mouse, and the story is very touching and realistic.

[Danielle Mootz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book at the library and didn't read the whole story so I was surprised how well written this story was in covering the loss and grief process of a pet.

[Abby Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me of my dog Hobo of when he died. Very sad day that day but at least he is buried in our backyard.

[F · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a sad story but it is a good story to let children how to handle dead start with a young age.

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

If your child has a pet mouse, rat, hamster, guinea pig then Goodbye Mousie by Harris is the book for you. What a heart breaking book, as are all the children's books about the death of a pet. But this book goes through how the child is upset and when they put the deceased mouse is put in a shoe box the child puts in lots of little things to keep him company, to keep him warm, puts in his favorite treats, then decorates the shoebox. All very healthy ways of healing.

I especially liked this book because though I never had a mouse I used to have lots of hamster before I got a dog. But they're so fragile. They catch a cold and slowly die miserably and here I am as a kid hovering over the cage hoping for a miracle, any sign that it's getting better. Back then we didn't consider taking it to a vet. It was a hamster, we were not even middle class and you just didn't take all pets to the vet. If you couldn't get medicine for them at the pet store well, you just let nature run it's course as horrible as that sounds. The hamster would die and I would cry my eyes out and be depressed for a couple of weeks. Then eventually I would get another one. I think I had four hamsters, one at a time over the years. My mom hated it when I would get another one because she knew it wouldn't last long and I'd be heartbroken by it's passing.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some children live long and happily for decades before they encounter death.

For picture book readers, an excellent resource for consolation is "Goodbye Mousie."

Applause for the wise Daddy in this book. All that he said and did was exemplary parenting, seems to me. Likewise for Mommy.

As for the narrator, his questions and reactions were just pitch perfect. He seemed real to me, and I'm no longer a kid. (Technically.)

* I'd expect no less from Robie H. Harris -- another magnificent book, a child's introduction to death.
* Jan Ormerod's work was new to me, I think. Now I'm such a fan. For instance, Goodreaders, notice how she renders the narrator's bunny slippers: Some blobs of white, a few random looking squiggles and then pop: Three-dimensional little guy shoes. I can almost smell his adorably stinky feet.

[Colleen Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a such a great book to open discussion surrounding the process of emotions we may feel when grieving. After the little boy finds that his pet Mousie won’t wake up he makes a special box, filling it with items that reminds him of Mousie. This children in my PSHE lesson were able to make their own memory boxes for someone they may not see anymore. This was an amazing lesson, the children were able to share their own experiences of loss, we discussed how they felt and why they may have felt that way.

[Gayle Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another pet death story to make me cry at work! I work in a library and I had just read "The Longest Letsgoboy." I reviewed it and read some other reviews. One review compared that book to this one. I remembered seeing it before, so I read it again. It's very sweet and sad, with nice illustrations. It's difficult to explain the death of a pet to a child, so I think these books might help kids understand and get past their grief.

[Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This was a sweet story about a little boy whose pet mouse died. His parents comfort him and help him prepare and then bury his mouse in a backyard funeral. It was a simple story and didn’t get into a ton of detail, but it’s relatable and shows feelings of both sadness and anger and the parents are consistently warm and supportive throughout.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good introductory book to pet death for toddlers. It covers the full range of emotions they might feel. There are a few books I like better because they include more tips for parents, but this is an excellent choice for a library collection.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A boy wakes up one morning to find his pet mouse is dead. his parents help him process his big emotions while he grieves. I could relate to the accidentally eating something because you thought your kid didn't want it page. 😅

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really helpful book for children who are experiencing the death of a pet. Simply told with real emotions exhibited.

[Jason lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a very sad book but I really like it I what to read it again and again😂😂😂😂😂🤗🤗🤗🤗🙂🙂

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my preferred children's book for discussing loss with a young child, but I think it could work well for others.