First sentence: Evan and his dog did everything together.
Premise/plot: Evan and his dog do everything together...until they don't. After Evan's dog dies, Evan enters a ROUGH PATCH. Will Evan ever want to live again? Will Evan ever be happy again?
My thoughts: The Rough Patch received a Caldecott Honor in 2019. I do like the illustrations. I'm not sure I loved, loved, loved the illustrations, but I definitely liked them. But do I like the story? Honestly I'm not sure that I do. Perhaps that says more about me than anything else.
The Rough Patch is a picture book about death, loss, grief, and depression. It is also a book about gardening. I am thankful that this book is NOT a copycat of The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst. I read the book with this dread that I'd turn the page and it would go there--the dog's decomposing body helped make the pumpkin grow so big. But thankfully it never did!
Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 7 out of 10
© 2019 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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