November 6, 2026
If you’re a long time reader you know I gravitate towards happy, silly, and funny books. Today’s book is a little different. Research shows that reading books to children is one of the only ways to help children develop empathy. Knowing that, and guessing that my readers want their children to be emotionally intelligent, they need to read widely about a variety of topics. Even sad ones.
Today, I’d like to share a moving and sweet picture book called, Where Are You, Eddie.
Eddie is gone. A man stands alone in his kitchen and wonders where Eddie is now. His cat Meg tells him, “If you look for him, you’ll find him. Not the way he was, but he’ll be there.” At this point in the book, adults will understand that Eddie has passed away, but children may need some conversation to figure out what that means. The man travels to all the places he and Eddie, his son, visited together. They talk to friends and siblings who all remember Eddie and share their own memories. The man feels happy knowing Eddie is alive in their hearts. He finishes his day by snuggling Meg and having her comfort him. The author's note shares that he lost his teenage son unexpectedly and thus wrote this book to remember him. He feels cats are knowledgeable beings and that by sitting with his cats, his spirit is soothed. Thus, he wanted a cat as one of the main characters.
Bits and Pieces: The illustrations were done in mixed media. I don’t know Gill Smith’s work, but she did such a lovely job here. The illustrations felt warm and somehow nostalgic. The real Eddie died in the 1990’s and you could feel that vibe in the artwork. This is a companion book to Michael's book titled, Michael Rosen's Sad Book
Not Sure: This is a book for a grownup and a kid to read together. Not a good fit for storytime.
Favorite Part: I liked the memory of Eddie pretending to eat cat food as his younger siblings looked on in horror. Good brothers will do anything for a laugh. I also liked that Meg was so gentle with the man’s grief. She didn’t push or try to tell him how to feel or even try to make him feel better. She just let him feel it and empathized with him.
