Grief Lending Library

Grief is messy and complicated. This children's book helps kids process their grief through simple, relatable, child-friendly language. For children ages 3-8 years old.

• Children

Separate texts for the adult and child.

• Children

• Helping Children / Historical

Guidelines for assisting adolescents presently struggling with the difficult issues of dying, death and bereavement.

• Helping Children & Teens

This book focuses on how to help children and teens in the aftermath of a parent’s suicide. The book provides an overview of current thinking/research on suicide and explores the increased risk of mental health issues for child survivors. In addition to information about how children grieve at different developmental levels, it also offers comfort to the bereaved, specific coping strategies for families facing this trauma, and insight into what promotes resiliency.

• Helping Children & Teens

• Suicide

Ages 8-11. Twins Amy and Allie were eight years old and their brother was four when their beloved father died suddenly in his sleep. Encouraged and guided by their mother, the three children kept a journal for almost two years. They wrote about the night he died, the funeral, the first week, the first year, the cemetery, their thoughts and feelings-and the future.

• Children

• Death of a Father

Join seven-year-old Grace on her journey through coping with the loss of her father while learning about the different ways that people grieve the loss of a loved one. In the process of learning about who her father was through the eyes of others, she learns about who she is today because of her father's personality and love.

• Children

• Death of a Father

Written while searching for answers to her brother's death that no adult seemed to have.

• Children

• Death of a Sibling

Fried’s letters, written after their deaths to a number of his most memorable patients, surely served as a catharsis for him, a means of venting pent-up grief. Compiled, they iterate the life affirmations of the children he came to know and admire over the years

• General

In this touching, humorous, whimsical and illuminating follow-up to Dear God, What Religious Were the Dinosaurs, best-selling author David Heller and Elizabeth Heller once again tap into the minds and hearts of children to help answer some of life’s really important questions, such as: What is heaven?, Where is heaven?, What is an angel?, etc.

• Children

• Religious

When her grandmother starts forgetting things, has to go into a nursing home and then dies, a young girl tries to remember the good times they shared.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

Ages 4 and up. Anna's Corn portrays the love between a grandparent and grandchild and gently looks at loss and grief and the hope of new life. Barbara Santucci's simple story reassures young readers that memories can help heal our sadness, while Lloyd Bloom's poignant images capture the changing seasons of nature and life.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

After the Ant Hill School is destroyed, a little boy ant is afraid to go back to school. This story thoughtfully addresses fears associated with both natural and man-caused disasters. It models effective parenting and teaching responses. This book can help assure children that through love, empathetic understanding, preparation, and effective communication, they can stand strong, even in the midst of uncontrollable events

• Children

• Any Disaster

The author analyzes the effects of a death in the family on the lives of children and adults.

• Professional

Ages 5-10. About the death and life of a very special friend. At first, those who loved Badger felt overwhelmed by their loss. In time though, whenever Badger’s name was mentioned, someone would recall a special memory that made them all smile.

• Children

Ages 4-8. When Emily’s brother dies after a long illness, she feels alone, angry, and sad. With the understanding and support of her parents, she learns that it helps when she snuggles with her parents, talks about her feelings, and asks questions about Ben. It helps when she does regular kid stuff, too. Mostly, she learns that remembering Ben and their happy life together builds healthy and helpful images that soothe her sad feelings and provide much comfort to her and her family.

• Children

• Death of a Sibling

Ages 9-12. “A little girl’s brother has died and she shares with readers what this means to her. She tries to understand her own feelings and those of her family, illustrating that there are different ways that people react to losing someone they love. It arrives at a universal problem-how to acknowledge the birthday of a child who has died.”

• Children

• Death of a Sibling

Ages 8-13. Black Jack Jetty follows Jack as he copes with his father’s death in Afghanistan. Follow Jack’s journey through his grief, anger, anxiety, and guilt. A tip sheet for kids to help cope with a parent s death follows the story.

• Children

• Death of a Father / Military

A tool for parents, grandparents and others to help the children the love understand and appreciate the blessing of feelings. Helps children learn the names of emotions while they study the photographs of children’s facial expressions. They, in turn, can begin to label their own feelings and understand that all feelings are OK.

• Helping Children

Provides a wealth of information on books designed to help children from ages 3 to 16 overcome the grief of loss in whatever form it takes.

• Helping Children

• All Loss

A guide for helping children with complicated grief issues. Includes bibliographical references and index.

• Helping Children

• Complicated Grief

A father helps his grieving daughter, following the death of her mother, by pointing out a twinkling star that seems to be smiling down at them.

• Children

• Death of a Mother

A refreshing and practical approach to working with children who are suffering the loss of a loved one due to suicide. Rubel takes a very difficult topic and creates a manageable path for parents and professionals to follow when helping the young suicide survivor.

• Helping Children

• Suicide

The story follows a little girl processing her grief over the death of her father. In this first book of the series she is trying to figure out how to say goodbye to her father while her mother prepares for the funeral. The themes in the book deal with expressing emotions, non-traditional funeral, and remembrance of a loved one. (The second book of the series is titled, It's OK to Be Happy!) 

• Children

• Death of a Father

After her grandmother dies, Lindsay finds strength and beauty in the butterfly bush they planted together.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

A Beareavement Story for Children. "Oh Grandpa! Why did you leave me?" This is the question that lingers in little Billy's mind when his beloved Grandpa dies. Then he remembers his trip with his grandfather to a valley of butterflies.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

A listen-to/read-aloud book for children. A beautifully illustrated resource that can be used to educate and support any child who is facing the cancer of a loved one. The story, as told through the eyes of a little boy as he explains his mom's cancer to other children, lends itself to a simple and clear understanding of cancer.

• Children

• Cancer

Grades 3-6. Presents information about cancer, emphasizing those things of particular interest to children and describing how the disease affects family members.

• Children

• Cancer

Chester Raccoon's good friend Skiddel Squirrel has had an accident and has died. Chester is upset and Mrs. Raccoon suggests that Chester and his friends create some memories of Skiddel, so that they will have good memories when they miss him. Chester, his brother Ronny, and their friends decide to gather at the pond, where they combine their memories and create a touching celebration of their friend's life.This sweet story will help children to understand the positive purpose behind memorial services and how "making memories" can provide cheer and comfort when missing an absent loved one.

• Children

Physician-author Diane Komp uses tender stories of her work with children who have cancer to illustrate timeless biblical truth. Showing how medicine, science, and biblical faith are compatible, she gives readers inspiring insight into the spiritual re-education of a Yale medical professor by her young patients.

• Professional

• Anticipatory / Before the Death / Religious

This book will help children and adults understand the deep impact of loss and what it takes to begin to heal. This book will help you and the child you care about to manage their sorrow and begin to move forward.

• Helping Children

• Death of a Parent

The author explains how children and adolescents grieve after someone loved dies. For adults who want to help.

• Helping Children & Teens

Childhood and Death fills the need for a comprehensive source treating the highly sensitive, difficult, and complex issues of working with children in this area. It discusses the various ways in which death affects children and effective intervention techniques to help them cope.

• Helping Children

• Children Dying

Children Also Grieve is an imaginative resource that offers support and reassurance to children coming to terms with the loss of a close friend or relative and to adults who are supporting them through their bereavement.

• Helping Children

This book attempts to identify, illuminate, and broaden our repertoire of adaptive maneuvers so that both children and adults will be better equipped to deal with the crisis of death.

• Helping Children

This book teaches you how to answer your child's questions in specific, practical ways, help your child grieve by supporting his or her God-given emotions. It also teaches you to give your child a sense of security and safety amid disorienting events like funerals, disrupted routines and more.

• Helping Children

Drawing upon extensive interviews and assessments of school-age children who have lost a parent to death, this book offers a richly textured portrait of the mourning process in children.

• Helping Children

• Death of a Parent

Enables anyone who comes in contact with a bereaved child to have greater understanding of a child's grief.

• Helping Children

A readable book directed primarily at caregivers but might also benefit a family dealing with a pediatric related problem of grief and bereavement.

• Helping Children

Focused on the traumatic nature that death presents in children's lives. It also includes a rang over a variety of topics, from supporting children during disaster, through the benefits of death education, to the value of ritual in helping children adjust to a radically altered set of circumstances following loss.

• Helping Children

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

The Dougy Center and American Foundation For Suicide Prevention created this helpful book discussing children and teen suicide loss.

• Helping Children

Explores children's evolving views of death; describes and discusses what children themselves think of life and death. Offers guidelines for explaining death to a child.

• Helping Children

Megan doesn't want to hear that her Nana is dying. She picks up one of Nana's plants and tries to bring it back to health. The Christmas Season just isn't the same - all the colors of the season seem to be gone. But after Nana dies, Megan gets a very special present.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

Ages 5 and up. Bessie misses her grandmother when she dies, but when Bessie grows up, she has a little girl of her own who looks and behaves just like Grandma.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

This reassuring picture book explores the issue of parents who are away from home while serving their country in the armed forces. Children's worries and questions become especially acute when the parent is being sent to a war zone. This title helps children understand that separation is only temporary, and that their Dad or Mom is performing an important patriotic service about which the child can be proud.

• Children

• Military

This guide provides hundreds of hands-on activities tailored for grieving children in three age groups: preschool, elementary, and teens. Through the use of readings, games, discussion questions, and arts and crafts, caregivers can help grieving young people acknowledge the reality of the death, embrace the pain of the loss, remember the person who died, develop a new self-identity, search for meaning, and accept support.

• Helping Children & Teens

Providing a viable alternative to the limitations of the medical model for companioning the bereaved, the author encourages counselors and other caregivers to aspire to a more compassionate philosophy in which the child is the expert of his or her own grief---not the counselor or caregiver.

• Helping Children

An innovative collection of therapeutic games, art techniques, and stories to help children of divorce express feelings, deal with loyalty binds, disengage from parental conflict, address anger and self-blame, and learn coping strategies. Includes a theoretical overview for practitioners, a sample treatment plan, and a reproducible handout to give parents. Also contains a ten-week curriculum that can be used in therapy or support groups.

• Helping Children

• Divorce

Aware their grandmother is gravely ill, four siblings make a pact to keep death from taking her away. But Death does arrive all the same, as it must. He comes gently, naturally. And he comes with enough time to share a story with the children that helps them to realize the value of loss to life and the importance of being able to say goodbye.

• Children

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

Gently told stories help assure children that they are not alone. Activity pages and suggestions for parents extend the value of this important series. Here are some suggestions for providing security and comfort to your child during difficult times.

• Children

Ages 4-7. Children love the illustrations in this excellent book. We learn about why some parents divorce, having two homes, telling your friends, visiting your parent, and even holidays.

• Children

• Divorce

Drawing on experience and wisdom from people who have lost husbands, wives, parents, children, and siblings, this book offers hundreds of helpful, succinct and heartfelt suggestions on how to provide comfort, now and over time.

• General

• Helping a Friend

For children ages 4 and up. When 5 year old Allison’s parents begin to see a change in her behavior at home they seek professional help for her. They find that Allison and other children have been ritually abused at a day care center. Thus begins Allison’s recovery.

• Children

• Abuse

Ages 9+. Emma comes to terms with her aunt's illness and eventual death from cancer.

• Children

• Cancer

Ages 6-12. Melinda looks forward to the letters and cards she receives from her favorite neighbor who has moved into a nursing home and when the old woman dies, it takes Melinda a while to find a way to stop missing her so much.

• Children

• Death of a Friend

Ages 9-16. A realistic guide to coping with the stresses and emotions a child or young teen may face when a parent has died.

• Children and Teens

• Death of a Parent

A collection of readings to help any reader face death more effectively.

• Helping Children

• Historical

An inspiring allegory illustrating the delicate balance between life and earth.

• Children

A wonderful resource for helping children understand death, grief, and remembrance, this is the story of a young boy who has been told that he has 'lost' his grandfather. The boy remembers when he himself was lost in the mall and wants to help his grandmother find his grandfather. When he learns that his grandfather is not lost but dead, the boy remembers the old man's kindness, love, and generosity. Material objects then begin to evoke warm memories of his grandfather. This touching story will encourage young readers to discuss their feelings of loss and grief.

• Children

• Death of a Grandfather

Simplified and suitable methods for talking to children and teenagers about sensitive topics with an emphasis on the subject of death. Honest but child-appropriate language is advocated, and various wording and levels of explanation are suggested for different ages when discussing topics such as death in general, suicide, homicide, accidental death, the death of a child, terminal illness, pet death, funerals, and cremation.

• Helping Children & Teens

For helping children cope with the death of a brother or sister.

• Helping Children

• Death of a Sibling

True stories of the faith and courage of children facing life-threatening illnesses.

• Helping Children

• Religious

In this book, Jenny Lisk shares of when her life suddenly changed after her husband was diagnosed with an inoperable brain cancer. Follow her story as she tried to figure out “parenting grieving children, and rebuilding some sort of life for three--out of four--members of her family”. You'll love this poignant memoir because it's heartbreakingly honest, and ultimately hopeful.

• Death of a Partner

• Cancer

A young child discovers a grandparents love grows even after death. After the death of her grandfather, Camillia decides to plant the garden she used to plant with her grandfather. She dresses the scarecrow in grandfathers old clothes and makes the best garden ever.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

Ages 1-8. An affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.

• Children

• Historical

An uplifting tribute to the human spirit -- to the nurses, the doctors, the parents and relatives, and especially the children at University Hospital Center.

• Professionals

• Historical

Designed to help adults who work with groups of children in their efforts to assist surviving children to cope with the emotional stresses with result when a friend dies.

• Helping Children

Ages 3 and up. Explores the pain and grief of saying goodbye. Even more important, The Goodbye Boat provides a message of hope that sadness will ease and that death is not the end.

• Children

A deeply personal and moving story uniquely told from child's perspective.

• Children

• Miscarriage/ Stillborn

This book offers a gentle way of explaining a loved one's suicide without sweeping it under the rug. By starting an open and honest conversation with our youth, we can help break down the stigmas and start raising mental health awareness.

• Children

• Suicide

Ages 5 and up. A boy asks others how they felt when his grandfather died and then shares his own feelings.

• Children

• Death of a Grandparent

Ages 6-12. Gray Fox runs over rolling hills, through the forest, and past quiet streams. The seasons pass, and as they do he finds a mate and they begin a family. Then tragedy strikes, but Gray Fox’s pride and spirit live on in his cubs, and in the memory of one small boy.

• Children

Offers tools for school personnel to effectively address the needs of grieving children. Chapters include tools to help with data collection, classroom activities, and on-going evaluation of progress.

• Helping Children

• School Resources

A handbook for teachers who this year alone, will deal with more than three million grieving children. Case study, class support for the grieving child, and ideas from counselors who have dealt with a series of deaths. Age appropriate responses included.

• Helping Children

• School Resources

Provides suggestions for dealing with a child's emotional responses (including anger, guilt and depression) and helping a child adjust to a new life after someone loved dies.

• Helping Children

True story of seven men who were raising children on their own after the deaths of their wives.  The men connected with each almost immediately, and over the next several years forged a deep bond as their monthly meetings evolved into a forum for healing and personal reinvention that transformed them in unexpected ways.

• Death of a Partner

• Men and grief

This book is designed to promote resiliency and healing in children that have experienced the death of a loved one. Using simple language and captivating photographs, this book guides children towards a path of understanding their emotions, as well as caring their minds, bodies, and spirits.

• Children

For families, friends and caregivers who want practical, day-to-day “how-to’s” for helping grieving children they love.

• Helping Children

Ideal resource for parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, teachers, coaches and others who want to help a teen in grief.

• Helping Children & Teens

By comparing grief counseling to gardening, the author suggests caregivers embrace a more holistic view of the necessary process of grief.

• Helping Children

Even if children or teenagers you love appear to be doing "just fine" after a loss, the truth is, they may be suffering in silence. They may not even know they need your help. Suzy's simple, straightforward, refreshing style makes helping a child both easy and effective. Her approach works to keep misperceptions, isolation, and sadness from permanently affecting the important children in your life.

• Helping Children & Teens

'Sammy couldn't wait to go to Baba Marta's house. Her grandma told such wonderful stories. They were stories that filled her with delight. But the story Baba told Sammy today was different. Sammy and Bab had been sitting on the old swing under the oak tree. Sammy noticed a long bare strip on the trunk of the tree where there was no bark. 'Baba, what happened to this tree? Why is there a big scar running down the middle of it?'' So begins the story of the healing tree.

• Children

• Cancer

For young and middle readers (6-12 year olds) grieving the death of someone loved. Age-appropriate activities and gentle, healing guidance.

• Helping Children

There is a wonder and magic to childhood. We don't realize it at the time, of course...yet the adults in our lives do. They encourage us to see things in the stars, to find joy in colors and laughter as they play. But what happens when that special someone who encourages such wonder and magic is no longer around? We can hide, we can place our heart in a bottle and grow up...or we can find another special someone who understands the magic. And we can encourage them to see things in the stars, find joy among colors and laughter as they play.

• Children

This Children's Book is a reminder that God speaks to us in many ways. Hearts From Heaven is a visual way for both kids and adults to make that connection, holding onto the promise of God's love for us. Sometimes we find hearts through laughter and sometimes through tears. We're all on an adventure with our Creator, and Hearts from Heaven are just one of many reminders that He loves us.

• Children

• Religious

Ages 8-12. As a parent and a grandparent, Randy Alcorn knows how important it is to pass along the biblical truths about Heaven. So in Heaven for Kids, Randy has adapted his best-selling book Heaven for a younger generation. He’s made all the great information and fresh teaching accessible and applicable for kids. Set up in an easy question-and-answer format.

• Children

• Religious

Ages 4-9. Children often have questions about life and death. This helpful book provides answers in terms children can comfortably understand as it explains God's role and His promise of eternal life as revealed in the Bible. An excellent resource when children deal with death for the first time. Formerly entitled If I Should Die, If I Should Live.

• Children

• Religious

The author shows how to teach your child to trust God and celebrate life and to deal with, learn from, and have hope in the face of death.

• Helping Children

• Religious

Focuses on ways to assist adolescents as they encounter loss, grief, and death. Some of the foremost experts in the field share their insights on this critical topic. The chapters examine the variety of losses adolescents encounter and offer ways to support both grieving adolescents and adolescents facing their own life-threatening illness. Voices of adolescents are included in their own words, to best articulate both their perspective on loss and the sources of their support.

• Helping Children & Teens

Drawn from stories, suggestions and insight shared by grieving children and their family members, this book explores how children view, understand and process death; how to talk with children about death at various ages and developmental stages; how to be supportive and helpful throughout their grieving process; and when to seek professional help.

• Helping Children

Focuses on the special needs of grieving children, offers guidelines for effective helping, and lists helpful resources.

• Helping Children

How books and stories can be used to help children grow, to help reduce fears and anxieties, and to initiate open honest communication between children and adults.

• Helping Children

• Historical

Shows how children at various ages understand death and offers positive ways for parents and other caring adults to help them grieve.

• Helping Children

This practical book offers 20 simple rituals that caregivers can use with people with developmental disabilities after a death. All of the rituals can be adapted for people of all age and all levels of disability.

• Professional

• Helping Children & Teens

Addresses issues that arise in the classroom after a death impacts a student, a classroom or a school. Includes practical tips and step-by-step information on what to say and do.

• Helping Children

• School Resources

"The intent of this book is to share the knowledge and experience of a variety of concerned individuals involved in the care of children facing death."

• Helping Children

• Terminally Ill Children / Historical

Provides the straightforward, uncomplicated language that will explain the facts of death to children from two-year-olds to teenagers.

• Helping Children

Ages 10-13. Children speak openly, honestly, unreservedly, of their experiences and feelings

• Children and Teens

• Death of a Parent

Through the description of personal experience, and case studies, the book explores how people with autism feel and express the loss of a loved one, how they process and come to terms with their feelings of grief, and offers practical and detailed advice to parents and caregivers on a range of sensitive issues. 

• Professional

• Helping Children & Teens

Explores the major issues and developments from the last decade that affect children today, including the dangers and opportunities of the Internet, a deeper understanding of how hereditary diseases affect children, the impact of the nation's explosive growth in single-parent families, and new insights into how family trauma and a parent’s mental illness may affect children.

• Helping Children

Offers wise comments and effective comebacks to help today's busy and beleaguered parents answer questions, encourage dialogue, explore feelings, and teach values. Each chapter consists of practical, how-to advice based on various scenarios, "Smart Talk" sidebars-new insights to the issues important to parents, and helpful "Rules of Thumb--"short but sweet tips.

• Helping Children