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Contacts:Email Elizabeth:
ep@elizabethpartridge.com
Literary Agent:
Ken Wright
Writer's House
212-685-2400
Literary Agent:
Ken Wright
Writer's House
212-685-2400
Children deal with loss much more often than we realize. Friends move away or move on, the school year ends, teachers leave, parents divorce, and pets die. I wanted to share a story of loss where the comfort wasn’t tied to a particular religion, but was deeply spiritual. It was offered to the child, and found when he was ready to open his heart.
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Softback ISBN-10: 1599900246
Hardback ISBN-13: 978-1599900247
Booklist
“Because of their loyalty and innocence, the death of a pet is especially poignant, and Partridge gets it just right with this tale of a boy and his beloved cat, Pepper. Using simple rhymes, the comforting daily routines described at the outset forewarn tragedy. Sure enough, one day Pepper no longer wants to play. Partridge does not sugarcoat what happens next: “Is he gonna die, Momma, / is he gonna die? / Mama said she thought so, / cry, oh cry.” The discovery of the dead animal is not shown, but we do see the boy cradling a wrapped bundle that he and his mother place into a flower-bed hole. The rest of the book entails the boy’s grief with emotional pencil illustrations of too-dark nights and too-empty rooms. It’s all pretty darn sad, but the story is buoyed by a stirring ending: hoping to understand Pepper’s “spirit,” the boy closes his eyes and realizes the breeze feels just like his cat’s fur and whiskers. Pets come and go; best to have this one on hand."
Kirkus Reviews
"Mama, me, and Pepper, / always been this way. / Never been without him, / even for a day.’ A young African-American boy sure loves his big cat Pepper, but one day Pepper won’t play. The next day Pepper won’t drink or purr. After the inevitable occurs, mother and son bury the cat in a flowerbed. When the boy asks if Pepper will be scared down there, Mama responds, “No, sugar, no, / I’ll tell you why. / His spirit is forever— / it can fly, fly, fly.” The boy doesn’t understand until o day he holds still: The grass tickles his ankles like Pepper’s fur, and he hears Pepper’s purr in the wind. The boy’s heart opens up, and he knows Pepper will always be with him. Castillo’s mixed-media illustrations of a rural, single-parent family are smudgily warm and comforting. The entirely secular explanation of death and the fact that there is no substitution pet added to the family in the end make this a very worthwhile addition to bibliotheraputic literature for the young.”
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New York Times Review
Publisher’s Weekly interview
Penguin author interview Part 1 and Part 2 on YouTube