Goodbye Mog

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by Judith Kerr

Interest age: 2 to 5
Reading age: 6+

Published by HarperCollins, 2003

Classics
Picture books

About this book

Mog is very old and tired, and slowly Mog passes away. But a little bit of her stayed awake to see what would happen next. Mog keeps watch over the upset Thomas family, who miss her terribly, and she wonders how they will ever manage without her. Nothing happens for some time...then suddenly, one day, Mog sees a little kitten in the house.

The kitten is frightened of everything - noise, newspapers, bags and being picked up. Mog thinks the kitten is very stupid. But then Mog realises that the nervous kitten doesn't know how to play and just needs 'a little bit of help'. And so, Mog pushes the surprised kitten into Debbie's lap, where it finds it actually likes being tickled and stroked.

The new family pet is settled in at last. But Debbie says she will always remember Mog. 'So I should hope,' thinks Mog. And she flies up and up and up right into the sun.

About the author

Judith Kerr was born on 14 June 1923 in Berlin but escaped from Hitler's Germany with her parents and brother in 1933 when she was nine years old. Her father was a drama critic and a distinguished writer whose books were burned by the Nazis. The family passed through Switzerland and France before arriving finally in England in 1936.

Judith went to eleven different schools, worked in the Red Cross during the war, and won a scholarship to the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1945. Since then, she has worked as an artist, a BBC television scriptwriter and, for many decades now, as author and illustrator of children's books.

Judith has a daughter who is a designer and a son who is a novelist. She lives in London.

Judith won our Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.