The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness

by Colin Thompson

George lived alone with his grandmother and an empty place where his mother and father should be.

One Friday on his way home from school, George visited the animal shelter. There, in the very last cage, was Jeremy, a dog who looked as lost and as lonely as George.

When Jeremy goes home to live with George and his grandmother, their whole lives change, and they learn that when it comes to love, it's quality not quantity that counts . . .

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Adoption, Dogs

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Since he started writing and illustrating children's books in 1990, Colin Thompson has had more than 50 books published. He has received several awards, including an Aurealis Award for the novel HOW TO LIVE FOREVER and the CBC Picture Book of the Year in 2006 for THE SHORT AND INCREDIBLY HAPPY LIFE OF RILEY. He has been shortlisted for many other awards, including the Astrid Lindgren Award - the most prestigious children's literature prize in the world.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Colin lives in Bellingen, Australia. His books with Random House Australia include HOW TO LIVE FOREVER, numerous picture books, THE FLOODS series, THE DRAGONS series, THE BIG LITTLE BOOK OF HAPPY SADNESS picture book, which has been shortlisted for the 2009 Children’s Book Council Award for Best Picture Book, and FREE TO A GOOD HOME.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touching book about a lonely, sad boy who rescues a lonely, sad dog just in the nick of time . . . for both of them. What a great reminder of all the joy an animal can bring to our lives! I had to do that trick where you keep widening your eyes, or I'd have been a blubbering wreck by the end of it.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about loss, isolation and building a new life. Opens with "George lived alone with his grandmother and an empty place where his mother and father should have been. George's grandmother was a kind lady, but she was very old and the two of them spent most of their lives on different planets." Read and see how things change for this family of two.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really drawn to this book because of the name, and ended up loving the gentle story (which is indeed sad and happy). Suited for slightly older children than most picture books it tells the story of George who lives a lonely life with his Grandmother and an empty space where his parents should have been. But George finds 3-legged Jeremy in the last cage at the dog shelter and (after some adventures trying to make Jeremy a new leg) the place inside George doesn’t seem so empty any more.

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't decide if this is the happiest sad book ever or the saddest happy book ever. Either way, I'd say this is an older reader picture book.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful!!

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great.

Googly.

Moogly.

You know, I like sad books. I don't why, but I love sad books with happy endings. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane made me cry for days, and it's one of my all-time favorite books. If You Find me is, I've heard, extremely sad, but I'm enjoying it thus far. The Book Thief and A Canticle for Leibowitz both end with major areas (Munich in the former and the world in the latter) being bombed to ashes, and they both have permanent spots on my all-time-favorites shelf.

So why did I not love this book?

Hoo boy, how much time do you have?

For the sake of brevity, I'm going to keep my beefs with this book down to four.

1) The main character. What is WRONG with that kid? Okay, okay, I know he lives with his grandma because he lost his parents. I know the other kids think he's weird and so they ostracize him. I know he must be broken inside, and I'm not trying to shame him for that. But I don't know a lot of kids who have lost that much who always go to the back of the animal shelter to gaze at the dogs who are about to be put down. Maybe I've just met the wrong kids, but all of the kids I've known who love animals don't want to be reminded of an animal's impending mortality.

2) The shelter lady. Serious Did Not Do the Research here. When the kid tells her that he wants to adopt a dog with three legs who is ONE day from being put down, she tries to talk him out of it. "We have eighty-seven other dogs," she tells him. "Don't you want one who is more beautiful than that dog?"
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*deep breath*
Has this author even BEEN to a shelter before? The workers don't try to get the pretty dogs adopted. It's the "ugly" ones, the ones with missing eyes or torn ears that they try to foist on people. Had this lady been an ACTUAL shelter worker, she would have burst into tears of joy when that kid told her he wanted the three-legged dog about to be put down.

3) The author describes the dog, then says, "He was someone [the kid] could really identify with." Excuse me? You just SHOWED us that! We're not morons. Let us make the connection ourselves. Writing like this is all over the book.

4) This book is for CHILDREN. Colin Thompson wrote this book with children in mind, and some publisher picked up the manuscript and said, "Oh, this looks like a great book for developing minds!" 'Nuff said.

I hate this book. I hate it so much. I hope no child ever has their parents read it to them, because it would almost certainly be a traumatic experience. Sure, it has a happy ending, but that means moot when a book is this sadistic.

I'm going to re-read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to get this rubbish out of my head.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

George lived alone with his grandmother. He spent his Friday afternoons at the dog shelter. He felt most at home in the dark of the last cage where the dogs spent their final days before being euthanized. George was surprised to find a small dog looking back at him rather than cowering in the back of the cage. The two stared at one another and a connection was made. The pound was about to close, but George ran home to tell his grandmother about the dog. The hairy dog had three legs so George carries him home. As they tried to figure out a solution for the three legs, the dog began to change George's attitude and his grandmother's.

Both the text and illustrations are quirky in such a wonderful way. The text laments that dogs can't smile, emphasizes the hopelessness of George and the dogs at the pound, and explains the ugliness of the dog in a vivid way:

"Why would you want him? We've got 87 other dogs here. They've all got four legs and bright eyes and a coat that doesn't look like it's covered in lard."

The illustrations have depth, character and their own style. There are so many small touches that surprise but offer a new take on life. The grandmother's face has some wrinkles, but the best part is that her skin is done in a crackled glaze so she looks like her paint is about to chip off. The wallpaper at their home is not dingy, the counter at the pound covered in a lifetime of paw prints, and small pieces of newspaper go everywhere during a papier-mache project.

Because of the question of a dog in a pound being euthanized, adults may not want to use this with sensitive kids. But those children who veer toward the dark and depressed with find a kindred spirit here as well as hope galore.

[Carlette Jewell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a humane educator and I'm always looking for books that inspire empathy for animals, especially shelter animals. I used to be an art teacher before that, so I am of two minds on this one.

I found it ridiculous and morbidly hilarious. I laughed quite a bit. I found the illustrations very interesting in texture and style, but I feel like I wouldn't have liked them as a kid, too gloomy.

As a humane educator I dislike the negative image with which he portrays shelters. A pound may have been like this years ago, but even the pound isn't like this anymore, and a decent shelter isn't going to tuck disabled dogs in the back. They'd scrub him up and put him in a well-lit kennel with a charming story to catch the interest of adopters. The shelter worker would not have been so callous (in my experience most care more about animals than they do about people).

3 legged dogs and cats generally get along just fine. And dogs do smile. They smile a happy panting smile, and they also do submissive grinning.

Overall I got the impression the author had never visited an animal shelter or spent time with a dog.

In the pros column: dark books allow children to work through darker thoughts and feelings safely, the kid in the book is empowered to help the dog, and it had a happy ending.

This feels more like a picture book for adults. I wouldn't read it to kids for my purposes.

[Gemma Wiseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who could imagine that a 3 legged dog close to heaven, (where those unloved wait for their time according to some humans), would unite a grandmother and a young boy and give the boy his first taste of unconditional love and a glowing sense of being. Sadly, the happy moments seem to become a little overly dramatised right at the end of the book. Perhaps there could have been another journey on the horizon!

[Sondra Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been known to bring many readers to tears; of both joy and sorrow. Covering a wide range of emotions on the same page, and often within the same sentence, Colin Thompson does an amazing job telling a story of a young boy and his new canine companion and how finding each other healed them and filled an empty place inside them.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that the grandma's face matches the cracked concrete.

Favorite Quote:

It's one of the great faults of nature that dogs can't smile, because when Jeremy ran around the garden on his new leg, he had a grin inside his head as wide as Australia.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely happy and sad.
Very much like life...full of all those little sadnesses that make our happys so happy.
Love this authors work.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thompson, Colin The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness. Kane/Miller, 2008. PICTURE BOOK.

George lives with his grandmother, and though they love each other, there are both still lonely in their own little universes. Then George finds a friend - someone who George him as much as George needs someone. But George's new friend has challenges to face first.

There's no information in the book that I can find about the medium or process that Thompson used to create his illustrations, but they have an odd, intriguing quality about them that I can't resist. Even more so after I read that he is colorblind. George, his grandmother and the dog, Jeremy, are a quirky bunch and any child can relate to the wish of owning a pet.

EL - ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library-Teacher.
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2008/...

[Katia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colin Thompson's The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness was a touching picture book that is a quick and easy read for anyone. It highlights the unlikely friendship between main protagonist, George, and Jeremy, his dog with only 3 legs that he got from the animal shelter. George is determined to give Jeremy the best life, so he makes a prosthetic leg out of all sorts of materials to allow Jeremy to do all sorts of activities. I loved this book and the illustrations were beautiful.

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book....I would never read it to a kid. But I liked it well enough myself.

[Hung · Rating 4 out of 5]

George reminds me of Ralph Wiggum. This story is so sweet.

[Alene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touching book about compassion and friendship amidst childhood depression.

[Josh Thies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adopt. Don't shop.

[Bridgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 6 year old and I LOVED this book! So sweet.

[Jasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a little weird, but has a friendly/happy message.

[anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO SAD. one big huge advertisement for no kill shelters bc WHAT DO YOU MEAN the dogs go through a green door to heaven????

[Kelly Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"George lived alone with his grandmother and an empty place where his mother and father should have been." 😭

[Emkoshka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Colin Thompson picture book. I have to admit that I'm very impressed by the diversity of his illustrations, breadth of storytelling ability and the strong and intelligent themes of so many of his pictures books. These are certainly not just for children and once again, I was absorbed and moved.

This one tells the story of lonely boy George who lives with his grandmother and an absence in the middle where his parents should be. Every Friday on his way home from school he visits the animal shelter. Then one day he finds Jeremy, a dog that is lonely and lost, just like him.

The illustrations are wet and dirty, something like the ones I didn't really take to in The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley. There's more to appreciate here though: the grandmother's tightly cracked porcelain face, Jeremy's furry scruffiness, photorealism juxtaposed with illustration. A particularly neat touch is the way the cord from a blind hangs in a circle over George's head on one page, neatly forming a halo. And the use of torn up newspaper (a TV guide) on one page is just great and makes the book feel very Australian, as does the inclusion of a Hills hoist on the next page.

The writing is strong, poetic and uncomprising and will even have adults reaching for their dictionary – the use of the word 'verdigris' is a case in point.

But Thompson has written another thematically strong and engaging picture book that reaches out and touches adults as well as children.

[Allison Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness is a narrative about a little boy named George who is being taken care of by his grandmother where he feels lonely and sad. One day, he goes to the pet shelter where he finds a dog that reminds him of himself. Jeremy the three legged dog, who only has one day left before he gets put to sleep, gets adopted by George and his grandmother. As a literacy teacher, I would use this text because of it’s strong vocabulary (ex. verdigris, reflection, dignified) and it’s loving nature of being a good friend. The text is great for students to understand the concept of helping others and giving someone love who is in need. It touches the concept of a child who isn’t raised by his parents and how difficult that can be. After reading a biography about the author and illustrator, Colin Thompson, he puts a lot of himself in his character, George. After never meeting his father, he is sharing a story about what seems to be a broken family and sharing about his celebration of seeking for a new family. Thompson does a wonderful job a portraying a little boy in search for happiness. The imagery in the story is sweet and at times silly which makes it eye catching for children. This story definitely shares about a different type of family and how some children, in a way, are adopted by their grandparents.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

That moment when you pick up a book to read to your class that you really haven't previewed.

This one made me a little nervous. The beginning is so sad and pathetic!! I almost stopped after:

Most Friday afternoons on his way home from school, in that time before the weekend
when lonely people realize just how lonely they are......


One thing is for sure though, it sure grabbed everyone's attention. Every student my class was riveted and listening carefully to see what would happen to this poor sad pathetic boy.

Everyone was really curious about why the dog only had three legs. The story doesn't say and we decided sometimes that just happens. ...and sometimes life is just sad like that...but we can make the best of it.

We also loved the bit about how Jeremy, the dog, is so happy living with George that he has a smile as wide as Australia. We love good descriptive words!

The illustrations really tie in well to the sadness in this book.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

An orphan boy who lives with his grandmother, visits the animal shelter every day, particularly the dogs who are about to be put to sleep. One day he decides the three-legged scruffy mutt is going to come home with him instead. He gets his granny and they take the dog home, figuring out how to make him a new leg.

This is totally Hallmark material. Likely to cause sentimental types to ball their eyes out as it talks about the dogs headed to doggy heaven and then the grand rescue. A bit sappy, but sweet. The illustration style did nothing for me. Especially strange were the wrinkles on granny that looked more like cracks in porcelain. It was borderline disturbing.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy sad book of George, his grandmother and the dog they save from the pound just before he is due to be killed. A very affirming book about inclusivness by one of Australia's best known illustrators and writers. Little kids will probably shed a tear or two. Lovely illustrations in Colin Thompson's usual manner. Nominated for CBA 2009. Particularly loved the way George and granny try to make a replacement leg for their pet, but did wonder about the kennel in the sky references and the dogs that ended up in the last cage - a bit macabre???

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

George is a lonely boy who lives with his grandma. To pass time, he likes to visit the local kennel where he finds himself drawn to the three legged dog in the corner cage. Although, he is not vibrant and healthy like the other dogs, George still wants to adopt him. On his final visit, he finds out that if he does not act fast, his furry friend will be put to sleep. He ends up saving his life and in return the dog saves him. A beautiful story of hope for any animal lover.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I weren't at work, I would break down into a heap of sobs...I mean soul wracking,shoulder heaving, sad, happy, tears. The emotion in the book conveyed so powerfully in words and pictures....just tells the story. I FELT this story! I can't write anymore because I might just start sobbing in a heap on the floor!!!

[Felicityw]

I think that it is a cute and sad story I found that the dog is so cute and cuddly and I recommend that you read it.The poor dog has a sore foot and is a wonderful story, I reccomend the book to age's 5-9 and it is a sad story with a happy ending.