Tough Boris

By Mem Fox, Kathryn Brown (illustrator),

Book cover of Tough Boris

Book description

Boris von der Broch is a mean, greedy old pirate - tough as nails, through and through, like all pirates. Or is he? For when Boris'' parrot dies, the tough pirate is reduced to tears'

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Why read it?

1 author picked Tough Boris as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

E.B. Bartels

Author

This is another great picture book about the death of a non-dog/cat pet––in this Mem Fox classic, the pirate Tough Boris loses his dear pet parrot.

This book is especially wonderful though because it shows how even the toughest of tough guys––and Tough Boris is a tough pirate––can absolutely fall to pieces when a pet dies. It’s okay to cry about an animal dying––even if you are a pirate!

The really beautiful thing about this story though is seeing how Tough Boris copes with the loss through making friends with a stowaway boy on his ship, because if I’ve learned…

From E.B.'s list on teaching kids about pet death.