Category: Children’s Grief

What Happens When Someone I Love Can’t Get Better: A Book to Prepare and Cope with End of Life 

By Jenni Rogers (Author), Sara Olsher (Author) (2024).

From Amazon.com: “It’s a conversation no one wants to have – you just found out someone you love is dying or needs hospice, and you don’t have as much time as you’d hoped. How do you tell the kids? Where do you start?

Millions of families, when faced with a shortened life expectancy, struggle with how to talk to their kids about it. We don’t want to take away their innocence or end their childhood. How do we have this conversation in a way that isn’t devastating or super scary? We start by making it make sense, from a scientific point of view.

Join Mia and her stuffed giraffe Stuart as they explain how bodies work and what happens when important body parts aren’t able to do their jobs anymore. What Happens When Someone I Love Can’t Get Better uses bright and engaging illustrations to explain what keeps bodies alive and helps reduce confusion about why bodies die.

It covers important topics such as:

  • how internal organs are supposed to function
  • what happens when internal organs stop functioning properly
  • the role of medicine and surgery in treatment
  • what happens when medicine is no longer effective
  • comfort care and hospice
  • legacy building and memory keeping

…all using child-friendly terms that explain and normalize death.

Open, Honest, and Accessible: Kids can handle learning the truth about most any situation – as long as it’s presented in a way that makes sense to them.

Validation of Feelings: By shining a light on big (and sometimes shameful) feelings, this book validates kids’ feelings and experiences, reassuring them that their emotions are normal and encouraging them to share with a trusted grown-up, in addition to providing suggestions for coping.

Resource for Caregivers: When there’s no resource to make hard conversations easier, grown-ups are far less likely to have them. This book aims to empower adults and kids with knowledge, which is proven to help kids through traumatic situations.Therapeutic and Educational Tool: What Happens When Someone I Love Can’t Get Better is a go-to book in hospitals, schools, counseling settings, and support groups. There are no references to God or the afterlife, leaving room for families to have discussions based on their own belief system.”

A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children: Rebuilding Your Family after the Death of a Loved One 1st Edition

By Phyllis R. Silverman & Madelyn Kelly (2009)

From Amazon.com:  “When children lose someone they love, they lose part of their very identity. Life, as they knew it, will never be quite the same. The world that once felt dependable and safe may suddenly seem a frightening, uncertain place, where nobody understands what they’re feeling. In this deeply sympathetic book, Phyllis R. Silverman and Madelyn Kelly offer wise guidance on virtually every aspect of childhood loss, from living with someone who’s dying to preparing the funeral; from explaining death to a two year old to managing the moods of a grieving teenager; from dealing with people who don’t understand to learning how and where to get help from friends, therapists, and bereavement groups; from developing a new sense of self to continuing a relationship with the person who died. Throughout, the authors advocate an open, honest approach, suggesting that our instinctive desire to “protect” children from the reality of death may be more harmful than helpful. “Children want you to acknowledge what is happening, to help them understand it,” the authors suggest. “In this way, they learn to trust their own ability to make sense out of what they see.” Drawing on groundbreaking research into what bereaved children are really experiencing, and quoting real conversations with parents and children who have walked that road, the book allows readers to see what others have learned from mourning and surviving the death of a loved one. In a culture where grief is so often invisible and misunderstood, the wisdom derived from such first-hand experience is invaluable. Filled with compassion and common sense, A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children: Rebuilding Your Family after the Loss of a Loved One offers readers a wealth of solace and sound advice, and even-where one might least expect it-a measure of hope.”

From Amazon.com:  “About the Author

Phyllis R. Silverman has received many awards for her work and is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of bereavement. The co-principal investigator of the pioneering Harvard Child Bereavement Study, her books include Widow to Widow: How the Bereaved Help Each Other and Never Too Young to Know: Death in Children’s Lives.

Madelyn Kelly is a writer and former television news producer, and the mother of two sons. Her husband, the writer/columnist/editor Michael Kelly, was the first American journalist to be killed in the Iraq war, in 2003. She edited a compilation of his work, Things Worth Fighting For: Collected Writing.”

The Memory Book: A Grief Journal for Children and Families

(Memory Box) 

By Joanna Rowland  (Author), Thea Baker (Illustrator) (2020)

From Amazon.com: “I will always remember you . . .Joanna Rowland’s best-selling The Memory Box: A Book about Grief has helped thousands of children and families work through the complex emotions that arise after the loss of a loved one. Now, with The Memory Book, Rowland has created a beautiful grief journal to help readers put her methods into practice. The Memory Book helps grieving families process their emotions together by remembering their lost loved one and creating their own memory album full of photos and keepsakes of the person they lost. With gentle prompts and ideas for journaling, drawing, and talking through grief, this journal will bring comfort in the midst of loss and be a keepsake for families for years to come.”

The Memory Box: A Book About Grief

By Joanna Rowland  (Author), Thea Baker (Illustrator)  (2017)

From Amazon.com: “”I’m scared I’ll forget you…”

From the perspective of a young child, Joanna Rowland artfully describes what it is like to remember and grieve a loved one who has died. The child in the story creates a memory box to keep mementos and written memories of the loved one, to help in the grieving process. Heartfelt and comforting, The Memory Box will help children and adults talk about this very difficult topic together. The unique point of view allows the reader to imagine the loss of any they have loved – a friend, family member, or even a pet. A parent guide in the back includes information on helping children manage the complex and difficult emotions they feel when they lose someone they love, as well as suggestions on how to create their own memory box.

The Memory Box is a 2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards winner–a contest intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to support childhood literacy and life-long reading.”

My Heart Hurts: A Grief Workbook for Children

By Karen Jaggers LPC. (2017)

From Amazon.com: “SPECIAL FULL COLOR EDITION!

My Heart Hurts is a workbook for children and teens who have experienced the death of someone whom they love and who is important to them. As a grief specialist, Karen Jaggers works with so many heartbroken children who just want to understand what is happening to them. Her greatest hope in creating this workbook, is that this workbook will make a real difference in the lives of grieving families. It facilitates the many questions kids ask during private counseling sessions that they are afraid to talk about with other people. My Heart Hurts can help a grieving child begin to process the loss of anyone who was important to them, as well as guide adults as to how to begin a dialogue about loss and grief with a grieving child. Regardless of the type of loss: grandparent, parent, sibling, teacher, friend, or pet, no child should have to figure out how to handle the emotions of grieving all alone. Whether you are a parent, a pastor, a mental-health professional, or a teacher who is also grieving the loss, the best way to provide the unique help children need at such a difficult time isn’t always clear. My Heart Hurts makes it easier. Written by grief specialist Karen Jaggers, MS, NCC, LPC, this workbook provides an effective way to help children and teens when they need it most. And for children who are hurting, getting some extra help can make all the difference.”

The Invisible String Workbook: Creative Activities to Comfort, Calm, and Connect

By Patrice Karst (Author), Dana Wyss  (Author), Joanne Lew-Vriethoff  (Illustrator) (2019)

From Amazon.com: “This must-have companion to the picture book phenomenon The Invisible String — which has sold half a million copies to date — uses more than 50 art and writing activities (plus bonus reflection cards!) to help build self-esteem and healthy relationships, and to celebrate the power of love. The bestselling picture book The Invisible String has been used successfully by countless parents, caregivers, therapists, and organizations who work with people coping with separation. Now, The Invisible String Workbook allows readers of all ages who have experienced any kind of separation or loss to delve deeper into their relationships, to engage in healing conversations, and to build stronger attachments. Written in collaboration with Dana Wyss, PhD, an art therapist who has used The Invisible String in clinics for years, this 112-page write-in book will help spread the power of The Invisible String to the communities who most need it — whether it be teachers in the early days of the school year, military families, counselors at grief camps, or everyday families nurturing connections with their loved ones.”

The Invisible String

By Patrice Karst  (Author), Geoff Stevenson (Illustrator) (2000)

From Amazon.com: “For Adults too! A steady best-seller and The Invisible String is reaching all over the World! with OVER 500,000 copies sold, this accessible, bestselling picture book phenomenon about the unbreakable connections between loved ones has healed a generation of readers–children and adults alike. “That’s impossible”, said twins Jeremy & Liza after their Mom told them they’re all connected by this thing called an Invisible String. “What kind of string”? They asked with a puzzled look to which Mom replied, “An Invisible String made of love.” That’s where the story begins. A story that teaches of the tie that really binds. The Invisible String reaches from heart to heart. Does everybody have an Invisible String? How far does it reach, anyway? Does it ever go away? Read all about it! THE INVISIBLE STRING is a very simple approach to overcoming the fear of loneliness or separation with an imaginative flair that children can easily identify with and remember. Here is a warm and delightful lesson teaching young and old that we aren’t ever really alone and reminding children (and adults!) that when we are loved beyond anything we can imagine. “People who love each other are always connected by a very special String, made of love. Even though you can’t see it with your eyes, you can feel it deep in your heart, and know that you are always connected to the ones you love.” Thus begins this heart-warming and reassuring story that addresses the issue of “separation anxiety” (otherwise known as the sense of existential ‘aloneness’) to children of all ages. Specifically written to address children’s fear of being apart from the ones they love, The Invisible String delivers a particularly compelling message in today’s uncertain times that though we may be separated from the ones we care for, whether through anger, or distance or even death, love is the unending connection that binds us all, and, by extension, ultimately binds every person on the planet to everyone else. Parents and children everywhere who are looking for reassurance and reaffirmation of the transcendent power of love, to bind, connect and comfort us through those inevitable times when life challenges us! Let’s tell the whole world that we are ALL connected by Invisible Strings! Adopted by Military Library Services & Foster Care Agencies Recommended by Bereavement Support Groups and Hospice Centers.”

We Were Gonna Have a Baby, But We Had an Angel Instead

We Were Gonna Have a Baby, But We Had an Angel Instead, by Pat Schwiebert  (Author), Taylor Bills (Illustrator) (2003)

Age Range: 2 – 5 years

From Amazon.com, “A new book from the author of “When Hello Means Goodbye.” Created especially for children who are suffering the loss of their families pregnancy.”

Something Happened: A Book for Children and Parents Who Have Experienced Pregnancy Loss

Something Happened: A Book for Children and Parents Who Have Experienced Pregnancy Loss, by Cathy Blanford (2012)

From Amazon.com, “This beautifully illustrated, simple, clear story is designed to help a young child understand what has happened when there has been a pregnancy loss. The book addresses the sadness that a child experiences when the anticipated baby has died. The child’s fears and feelings of guilt are addressed as well as other confusing feelings. Perhaps most important, the book includes the family’s experience of going on with life while always remembering their baby. The child reading the book is left with a sense of reassurance that life continues and he is still a vital part of a loving family. Most pages include a box with words for parents. These words are there to help parents understand what their child might be experiencing and why the particular illustrations and text were chosen. They are right there on each page so that the parents don’t miss them and can easily scan them while their children look at the illustrations. Children who have experienced a death in their family are very reassured by stories of other children who have had a similar experience. It helps them to understand better what has happened in their own family while at the same time offering the comforting knowledge that they are not alone in their feelings.”

No New Baby: For Siblings Who Have a Brother or Sister Die Before Birth

No New Baby: For Siblings Who Have a Brother or Sister Die Before Birth (Nnc), by Marilyn Gryte  (Author), Kristi McClendon (Illustrator) (1988)

Grade Level: 3 – 4

From Amazon.com, “For siblings who have a brother or sister die before birth. This storybook talks about the different feelings children have and answers some of the most asked questions. Recently revised, includes a section for parents and grandparents. Illustrations are done by Kristi McClendon.”