The Good-bye Book

by Judith Viorst, Kay Chorao (Illustrations)

This little boy will do anything to avoid an evening with the baby-sitter. He pleads with his parents. He begs. He bargains. Maybe he has a fever of a hundred and ten. Maybe he'll run away. Maybe he won't say good-bye!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Family

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Judith Viorst is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher. She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature. This includes The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books, which includes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), which has sold over two million copies.
Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 1970s, after two decades of writing for children and adults, Viorst turned to the study of Freudian psychology. In 1981, she became a research graduate at Washington Psychoanalytic Institute after six years of study.

Reviews

[Beverlee Jobrack]

Sweet. Viorst really captures child angst.

[Albert Lee]

The Good-bye Book is a short realistic fiction about a boy who experiences separation anxiety. The book starts out with the boy telling his parents that he doesn’t want them to leave for the French restaurant and should instead take him to McDonalds. The boy continues to tell his parents different excuses to keep them from leaving. It gets to the point where he tries to compromise by asking them to read half a book or a poem They continue to ignore him and he starts to tell his parents how he is going to run away and they will miss him and feel sorry. As they leave he feels shocked that they are leaving and he adamantly refuses to say good-bye. Eventually the babysitter comes to the house and sits down to read him a book. After noticing how friendly the babysitter seems and how the babysitter wants to interact with him he eventually says good-bye.
The book would be interesting to children because it is something that they could relate to and think about. The language that the book uses is the same kind of language that a child would use when talking to their parents especially when complaining or making excuses. The illustrations are simplistic and are good at showing the emotions of how the boy feels. The only problem I have with the book is that there is not a variety of culture groups represented and only the cultural group of the author and illustrator.

[Emmaline MacBeath]

A little's boy's parents are getting ready to go out for an evening and leave the boy with a babysitter. The boy pulls every trick out of his hat to keep the parents at home, but they leave anyway as the babysitter comes. Things turn out better than the boy could have imagined.

The illustrations are colorful, simple, and very expressive.

The thing I like best about this book is that I can feel every page of the book as the boy uses his dramatics to get what he wants. I love the picture where he talks about how he is now feeling sick and that he must be dying. He is lying there like a master actor in the most dramatic pose. The boy goes through all of the emotions. He tries being dramatic, then his fear appears and then he gets angry. I would have liked to hear some reassurance from the parents and the last few pages are a bit short and incongruent with the rest. But otherwise this is a cute story. With so many emotions portrayed, it would be simple to talk with your child about the many emotions of separation, how that feels, and how to deal with it. I like that this book is emotions centered.

Recommended for ages 3-6. I think 4-7 would be better able to understand the emotional aspect of the story.

[Lana Kamennof-sine]

Judith Viorst obviously has had experience with young children NOT wanting their parents to go out & leave them with a baby-sitter.
Full points on both accuracy & drama involved.
AND soooo glad none of mine went down that road :-)

[Kelly]

Judith Viorst really gets children. This is another good book about the parents going out without the child, and the child is really upset about it. Nice book.

[Melissa]

Parents are so cruel sometimes.

[Melinda Christensen]

A little boy refuses to say goodbye to his grandparents.

[Nichole]

Adorable and oh so relatable!

[Emily Farnschlader]

This book starts out with a child's parents getting ready to go out and leave their child with a babysitter. The little boy says anything to try to keep his parents from leaving. He starts out by saying the things that he does not like about being with a babysitter, like they make him eat vegetables. After this didn't work, he said that he was very sick and they shouldn't leave him. Then the babysitter showed up and the little boy had fun and no longer minded that his parent's left.
This book would be good to read to young students, especially if one brings up that they do not like when their parents leave them with a babysitter. This book shows that it maybe scary to do something for the first time. You could also bring up the topic of appropriate behavior and that throughing a tantrum and lying is innapropriate. The kids can share stories about how much fun babysitters can be.

[babyhippoface]

Angry that his parents are going out to dinner at a fancy French restaurant and leaving him at home with a babysitter, a little boy goes on an extended rant about how much he doesn't want them to leave. It's sort of the opposite of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, as the boy tries to convince his parents not to do something (as opposed to talking them into letting him do something). This would be cute for parents to share with a child before they go out for the evening.

[David]

I almost dislike this book. But I watched David's face while we read, and it brought up some issues we need to deal with: abandonment and anger. The book is redeemed, in my opinion, by the fact that the "babysitter" looks so much like the little boy. I said it was his uncle, which made it all okay.

[Anna]

Ages 3-6

A cute book about what children do when their parents leave for the evening. Kids and adults can relate to the dramatic comments. I like how it is written as a monolouge. The parents never speak in this book.
Concept Uses: looking at how a person's actions affect other people, anxiety, fear of the unknown, trying new things.

[Book Tea 🫖 with Jai]

This child was stubborn and very mean. He was so whiny and a little annoying. But yet he was like any other child. But he was just over board with you. I did find some parts funny, but the kids seem like they really related too this little boy. Some was over whelmed lol.

[Gina]

The only good thing about this book is the fact that there's a male babysitter at the end.

[Keji]

I think most parents will relate to this book. This little boy is find hard to say goodbye to his parents on their night out.

[Seianna]

i wonder how a book can change how you feel so much?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[Sarah]

A boy says everything he can to his parents to persuade them not to leave him with the babysitter. But the babysitter is so nice that he calms down after one book reading.