Pajama Press

“When a best friend moves away, it can be very painful. In Ben Says Goodbye, that loss is addressed with sensitivity and honesty….The accompanying illustrations are simple, but they do an excellent job of portraying Ben’s feelings as he watches Peter leave and then re-imagines their friendship. The book offers a wonderful tool for helping young children cope with this type of loss.”

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“Ben’s friend is moving away. Ben does not want to see his friend go and does not want to say goodbye. These are difficult concepts for young children to have to learn. Ben creates his cave world to help him come to terms with the loss of his friend. When Ben has spent the time he needs to move forward, he leaves his imaginary world and rejoins his family in their world. He also spies the possibility of making a new friend when he sees the scooter wheeled outside the moving truck next door.

This is an excellent resource to use in helping a young child through the difficult time of families moving from the neighbourhood. Making new friends is sometimes hard to do, but Ben’s experience speaks to the problem from the point of view of that young child and shows that it is possible to do. Highly recommended for parents, young children, classroom discussions, and story time.”

“During the preschool years, children often forge their first friendships and these relationships can be very intense. Here, Sarah Ellis explores how a young boy handles his sadness when his best friend moves away.

Ben is distraught because his best friend is leaving the neighbourhood. He opts to move, too, and seeks refuge in a cave (the space under the kitchen table) where his sole companion is a tamed (stuffed) lion. Adopting the persona of a cave boy, Ben resorts to grunting the sole sound of “guh” when his family speak to him.

While camped out in his makeshift dwelling, Ben finds solace in his two imagined stories about friendship. Using a pointed stick (pencil), he sketches his tales as a series of drawings on the walls of his cave. One tale tells of two boys who are best friends and of their fun and heroic antics. The other tale tells of two friends, living on different sides of the world, who dig their way to reunite in the centre of the Earth for a short visit.

When Ben smells butter in the air, he emerges from his cave and rejoins his family to share some popcorn. When he hears a moving truck’s beeping from across the street, he heads to the window to investigate the sound. From his post on the couch, Ben spies a neon-blue Scorcher Scooter—just the perfect size for a new pal.

The author offers a charming and delightful story in which a preschooler’s feelings and thoughts ring true. La Fave’s endearing softly-hued illustrations, accentuated by black outlines, accompany this gentle tale. Ben’s cave drawings, rendered in black on an ochre background, populate the book’s endpapers. This is a clever touch that offers readers an additional visual level on which to extend and enjoy the story.

Readers who wish to read more about Ben and his adventures will also enjoy A+ for Big Ben (a recent board-book version of Ellis and La Fave’s 2001 title, Big Ben).”

—Carol-Ann Hoyte

“…Losing a friend to a move is a familiar experience for children and adults alike, and this story will resonate with readers. Readers will relate to Ben’s unwillingness to say goodbye and his inclination to hide away and remember the fun times he and Peter had together. However, after being given some time and space to process his complicated emotions, Ben emerges ready to connect with his supportive family and consider the possibility of new friendships. The text of the story is accessible and simple…The text also accurately captures the thoughts and feelings of a young child dealing with a sad life change.

The illustrations by Kim LaFave in this story appear to be a combination of drawn and computer-generated, and they strongly support the text They are colourful and engaging, and the facial expressions on the characters are expressive. They also add depth and undertone to the text that is not there without them. For example, when the text describes Ben retreating under the table, he is said to have a club, a pointed stick, and a tame lion. Readers will see though through the illustrations that these are really a flashlight, a pencil, and a stuffed lion. The cave drawings that Ben appears to draw are also excellent, depicting a world of fancy and imagination perfect for a creative child. The entire feel of the pages with his drawings is completely different from the feel of the illustrations in the rest of the book, which serves the story well. It is also an interesting device to watch the progression of Ben’s stuffed lion in the book go from neglected toy to his only friend to security blanket.

…Ben Says Goodbye would be a good purchase for public libraries and school libraries that serve children in the preschool/kindergarten age group.

Highly Recommended”

—Carla Epp is a hospital librarian with the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB.

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