Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, her most famous children's book, was first published in 1972 and has since sold over two million copies. Your little ones should enjoy it.Judith Viorst is the author of several works of fiction and non-fiction for children as well as adults. And although “The Tenth Good Thing About Barney” deals with death, it is not at all depressing or morbid. Most families, though, will find valuable information to process with their children. Some parents find this section distressing, so if you want to raise your children with an unwavering belief in heaven, this may not be the right book for you. But the father validates his son’s point of view that maybe there is no heaven and Barney is just in the ground. Annie, for instance, is absolutely sure that Barney is in heaven.
It also explores different beliefs about what happens after death. Unlike more recent books, it does not explain exactly what death is, but it does explore the disposition of the body and the social function of funerals. “The Tenth Good Thing About Barney,” published in 1971, was one of the first books that talked about death at a level a child could understand. Barney is in the ground helping things to grow, he says. The father replies that Barney will become part of the ground and help things grow.Īs the narrator digests this information, he comes up with the 10th good thing about Barney. The narrator asks if Barney will change in the ground. He asks how the seeds become flowers, and his father explains that things change in the ground. We can’t be sure it’s there.”Īfter Annie has gone home, the narrator helps his father plant seeds. “But,” he adds, “we don’t know too much about heaven. The father acknowledges that maybe Barney is in heaven. He believes Barney is in the ground where they buried him.Īs the narrator and Annie continue to argue, the narrator’s father comes into the kitchen. When he and Annie are having a snack in the kitchen, Annie tries to make the narrator feel better by telling him that Barney is in heaven surrounded by tuna and other cats. At the funeral, attended by his family and his friend, Annie, he lists the nine things and says he will try to come up a 10th thing later on. He thinks and thinks, but he can only come up with nine good things. She tells the narrator to think of 10 good things about Barney so he can tell them at the funeral. That night, when his mom tucks him into bed, she suggests having a funeral for Barney. He cries all the time he doesn’t want to watch television and he has no interest in food – not even chocolate pudding. The book starts out with a quick, incisive statement: “My cat Barney died last Friday.” The narrator then describes how Barney’s death has affected him.
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