Grief Lending Library

Written from her own experiences, Elizabeth answers the question every bereaved parent asks, Will I ever get over it? Both a guide and a meditation, this book is valuable to friends and relatives as well.

• Death of a Child

A spiritual and practical guide to healing after pregnancy loss. This book points grieving hearts to real hope, and equips family, friends, churches, counselors, and others with understanding and tools for ministering to hurting families after loss.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage

Contains the author’s personal observations and conclusions about grief after the death of a child. He describes techniques for working through grief that may be especially helpful for the bereaved father.

• Death of a Child

• Men and grief

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

A compilation of true stories from parents who have had a baby die.

• Death of a Child

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

• Professional

When life becomes difficult, we set out on a search to find answers to significant questions: Why would God allow this to happen? What good could come out of this? What will it look like to trust him? This collection explores Scripture in regard to the causes and purposes of suffering, as well as what it means to trust God in the midst of hardship and pain.

• General

• Death of a Child / Religious

This is the classic book for parents whose child has died - and for those who want to help them. Author offers timelines and practical step-by-step suggestions to help you cope with every stage of grief.

• Death of a Child

• Historical

Nine mothers who lost a child and met in a support group give comfort and direction to bereaved parents. They candidly share with other grieving parents what to expect in the first year and long beyond.

• Death of a Child

A collection of poetry, fiction, and essays compiled by a journalist and a social worker, both of whom have had a child die.

• Death of a Child

This book is a testament to a grieving mother who chose to pick the flowers on her journey, and share them with us. Fran's symbols of butterflies, angels, and roses offers comfort to those who mourn.

• Death of a Child

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mary Beth unveils her struggle to allow God to write the story of her life, both the happy chapters and the tragic ones. And as the story unfolds, she has been forced to wrestle with some of life’s biggest questions. No matter where you find yourself in your own life story, you will treasure the way Mary Beth shows that even in the hard times, there is hope if you choose to SEE.

• Death of a Child

• Sudden & Traumatic Death / Religious

A book of prayers for families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death.

• Death of a Child

• Religious

This compassionate and practical guide offers a new model of bereavement care for nurses, physicians, social workers, chaplains and other bedside obstetric caregivers, as they companion families who have experienced miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and other forms of perinatal loss.

• Death of a Child

• Professional

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

With an understanding and empathetic voice, Kim exposes the hurt in your heart, reveals the healing in God’s heart, and brings the two together to create a whole heart where restoration-and celebration-are possible after an abortion.

• Death of a Child

• Religious / Abortion

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

Letters from those who have experienced the death of a child, sibling or other loved one to parents who have just had a child die.

• Death of a Child

The Death of a Child is filled with stories of people who have lost a child and how they dealt with the reality of that event. This collection of life-giving lessons touches on a wide range of emotions and situations that parents may encounter after the death of their child.

• Death of a Child

This booklet was created to help you embrace hope as you do the hard work of grieving in the painful aftermath of miscarriage. Grief takes time. Healing is a process. Give yourself the space and grace you need to mourn.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage

For parents experiencing loss from miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death. The author covers the many feelings, fears and fantasies that come, and adds a lot of easy to read and helpful information on physical reactions.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage/Stillbirth/ Infant Death

After her son, Zachary, dies in her arms at birth, visual artist and author Alexis Marie Chute disappears into her “Year of Distraction.” It is only when Chute learns she is pregnant again that she sets out to find healing and rediscover her identity―just in time, she hopes, to welcome her next child.

• Death of a Child

The authors explore the difficult emotions parents face, including sadness, guilt, anger, powerlessness and questions about faith. Drawing on the stories of people they have counseled, and their own experiences, the authors share the many challenges.

• Death of a Child

• Religious

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

A powerful and moving book written from the individual perspectives of a mother and father whose son dies suddenly.

• Death of a Child

• Sudden Death

For couples whose child has died. Looks at men's grief, women's grief, building your relationship after your child dies, how to help each other heal.

• Death of a Child

• Couples Grief

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

• Helping Children

• Death of a Sibling

One third of all women who conceive will have at least one miscarriage. This important book offers guidance for the sorrowing and helps them move on. It tackles the tough questions, including "Why did this happen?", and "Should we try again?" as well as exploring options for treatment and emotional healing.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage / Stillborn

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

This bold narrative written by the drummer and lyricist for the band Rush shows how Peart tried to stay alive by staying on the move after the loss of his 19-year-old daughter and his wife.

• Death of a Partner

• Death of a Child

The anticipation of a new baby breathes excitement into a family. But for some parents, joy is replaced with heartache when they learn that their much-loved preborn child may not survive. The information provided will address your fears and offer practical resources to assist you with making decisions.

• Death of a Child

• Perinatal Loss

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

Although this is a book for those left behind in the aftermath of violence, it offers concrete and practical steps, allowing family and friend’s safe passage through this incredibly harrowing journey.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Death of a Child

Grief Works is a profoundly optimistic and compassionate handbook for anyone suffering a loss—from the expected death of a parent to the sudden death of a child or spouse—as well as a guide for those who want to help their grieving loved ones.

• General

A collection of candid stories from grieving dads that were interviewed over a two year period. The book offers insight from fellow members of, in the haunting words of one dad, “this terrible, terrible club,” which consists of men who have experienced the death of a child. This book is a collection of survival stories by men who have survived the worst possible loss and lived to tell the tale.

• Death of a Child

• Men and grief

This book offers support, understanding, and, ultimately, comfort and hope from those who have sowed the same tears over the death of a child.

• Death of a Child

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

This book offers 100 practical ideas that have helped other grieving parents understand and reconcile their grief. Common challenges for grieving parents, such as dealing with marital stress, helping surviving siblings, dealing with hurtful advice and exploring feelings of guilt, are also addressed.

• Death of a Child

Miscarriage grief is real and justified. Love plus loss equals grief. The purpose of this book is to help you mourn and heal. This compassionate guide contains 100 practical ideas to help those grieving in the aftermath of miscarriage and all forms of early pregnancy loss.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage

The author explores the common feelings of shock, anger, guilt, and sadness that accompany a stillborn child, offering suggestions for expressing feelings, remembering the child, and healing as a family. Ideas to help each unique person—mother, father, grandparent, sibling, friend—are included, as are thoughts from families who experienced a stillbirth.

• Death of a Child

• Stillbirth

David and Deborah battle horrific grief and anger while trying to hold onto their marriage - and one another- after their son, Patrick, was killed in action in Baghdad, Iraq. This personal narrative shares the couple’s unforgettable journey together towards healing.

• Death of a Child

• Military

Heartbroken is a unique blend of the history of opioid addiction in the U.S., the honesty and courage of families affected and strategies to provide healing and hope. Seven parents share their diverse journeys through the opioid crisis and the traumatic grief of losing a child to drug addiction, in the hope of shining a light into the darkness that can enter any of our families.And, maybe, just maybe, keep another child and their family from this heartbreak.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Death of a Child / Overdose

Across the pages of this book, a father makes a courageous effort to put into print his deepest feelings regarding life. Spectacular photographs throughout help convey the emotions fathers experience after the death of a child.

• Death of a Child

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

Using Psalm 139, the author walks alongside women suffering the heartbreak of miscarriage. Having experienced the sorrow of miscarriage herself, she acknowledges the isolation commonly felt and the impact that such an experience can have on faith.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage / Religious

Contains practical information about the problems that grieving parents face. Offers suggestions and at the same time talks about honoring each other during the grieving process. Chapters also include support groups and counseling.

• Death of a Child

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

• Helping Children

"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

No mother ever expects to grieve the death of her child before or immediately after the child is born. When the unthinkable happens, where do women turn for help? Written from the perspective of one grieving mommy to another, this book encourages and challenges women to delve into a deeper understanding of God’s Word and His promises as they relate to loss by miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant loss.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarraige / Stillbirth / Infant Death

Five or more years after the death of their children, twenty-five families open their hearts and share stories of courage, hope and their attempts to make sense out of the most unbearable loss of all. What did they do to move on with their lives, to make each day meaningful again, to remember their child? In addition to helping themselves, learn how these parents help others and what advice they give to those still having difficulty living in a world without their child.

• Death of a Child

Ages 4-8. When a close friend or family member dies, it can be difficult for children to express their feelings. This book helps boys and girls understand that death is a natural complement to life, and that grief and a sense of loss are normal feelings for them to have following a loved one's death.

• Children

Audrey Caroline lived for over two hours, weighing three pounds, two ounces. Yet, in the midst of the sorrow of loss, there was still joy. Angie weaves the faith-filled story of Audrey Caroline with a biblical story of hope to help us all to understand how better to cope with loss and disappointment.

• Death of a Child

• Death of a Baby / Religious

Written by a mother who lost her 21 year old son to suicide, this book deals with the themes of suicide loss through the lens of the author's personal grief. Addressing the process of post-traumatic growth, this memoir provides the bereaved with therapy exercises and creative activities to help them come to terms with their loss.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Death of a Child / Suicide

This book reveals the true-life experiences of the author's personal journey through grief, hope, and healing following the stillbirth of her little girl. Within these pages you will find understanding and empathy, a sense of companionship and friendship, courage to face holidays and difficult occasions, reassurance of God's loving kindness, and the life-changing hope of heaven.

• Death of a Child

• Stillbirth

After the unexpected death of his son, Richard’s life seemed to stop. The next few years were spent climbing out of the bottom of a valley he had not known existed before. It is a story about what is important in life, sorrow, faith, acceptance and rebirth.

• Death of a Child

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

This honest, sensitive and beautifully illustrated picture book is designed to help explain the concept of death to children aged 3-7. Written from a child's own words, it is based on the real-life conversations that Elke Barber had with her then three-year-old son, Alex, after the sudden death of his father. 

• Children

• Death of a Father

The second book of the series, It's Ok to be Happy!, continues to follow a little girl's journey as she tries to navigate life after the death of her father. The themes in the book include a support group for children, equine-assisted therapy, and different ways to remember a loved one. (The first book in this series is entitled, But I Don't Want to Say Goodbye!)

• Children

• Death of a Father

The author uses his personal experience of his daughter's death in this book of reflection. The kayak becomes a metaphorical conveyance as Rosenblatt floats from one topic to the next, never anchoring on one thought for long, but instead conjuring elegiac prose on everything from life versus death to personal memories and classic literature.

• Death of a Child

A deeply moving memoir written by a mom whose only child was killed suddenly in an automobile accident.

• Death of a Child

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

An outstanding book to help parents explain the idea of death in ways that are understandable to children. Includes sections on the process of grief and ways to help children cope with loss.

• Helping Children

This crisis memoir explores questions we all ask when a loved one dies. It is the true story of one woman's struggle to survive the pain of being left behind when her 15-year-old daughter dies suddenly in a car accident. This book is about life and love, and the search for peace and joy following a great loss.

• Death of a Child

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

A father's letters to his premature son from birth to death.

• Death of a Child

• Men & Grief

On the morning of February 6, 1991, Dennis Apple discovered the lifeless body of his son on their family room couch. Eighteen-year-old Denny had died without warning from what was later explained as complications due to Mono. Sixteen years later, Dennis still struggles with living in a world without his son.Life After the Death of My Son shares a glimpse of the unspeakable pain, helplessness, frustration, and eventual healing that Dennis and his wife, Buelah, have experienced since losing their son.

• Death of a Child

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

As a 20 year old college student, Malinda found herself pregnant and trying to figure out what to do next. Life became more difficult after learning her daughter had a severe form of Spina Bifida and the doctors were almost certain she would not make it through the end of the pregnancy. From death and despair to strength and recovery, this is a story of Malinda navigating through the greatest loss of her life.

• Death of a Child

• Terminally Ill Baby

After a trouble-free pregnancy, her baby was declared dead on what was to be her date of birth. Following a C-section, Ash fought a fever that raged at 104 degrees and almost succumbed to the silent B-strep infection that had killed her daughter. Devastated by the experience, Ash sought solace and perspective in all the old places and found little relief. In this moving account she discusses the inner changes she faced after the stillbirth of her daughter, delves into spiritual questions that shook her soul, and examines the connection between mother and child that transcends separation and death.

• Death of a Child

• Stillbirth

Ways to handle the stages of grief, living alone, restructuring families, exploring children's reactions and rebuilding one's life after the death of someone loved.

• General

The subject of children and death made comprehensible to parents, relatives, doctors, nurses, social workers, and everyone else concerned.

• Helping Children

Discusses various issues that children and adolescents face before, during, and after the death of a loved one. Also touches on the dying child. Topics that are discussed include developmental perspectives, children’s hospice care, sibling loss, loss of a parent, loss of a friend, and loss experienced by military children.

• Helping Children & Teens

This book includes perspectives from clinicians who have experienced personal trauma, such as death by suicide, supporting a community after a tragedy, and working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapters include: Supporting those bereaved by Drug Overdose and Suicide Deaths, Treating traumatic loss after Violent Death, and Trauma and grief in children and adolescents.

• Professional

• Trauma

A mothers personal journey in learning how to navigate through her new 'state of being' after her son is killed overseas.

• Death of a Child

Goodman challenges us to open ourselves to a different set of stages that she labels numbness, unrelenting pain, searching, and reinventing. She writes with comforting openness about pretending that she was progressing through the standard stages, was "getting over" the death of her son, and was searching for a more clearly defined faith.

• Death of a Child

Treating children with complicated mourning and advice for parents. This study on magical thought offers interactive healing techniques, correcting distorted death stories, prescribed therapy, and uniting parents to assist grieving children.

• Helping Children

Based on the deaths of both her children as well as her professional experiences as a grief counselor, Meg Woodson offers compassionate, practical advice to see you through these darkest, loneliest days.

• General

• Death of a Child

When his daughter, Amy, collapses and dies from an asymptomatic heart condition, Rosenblatt and his wife leave their home on Long Island to move in with their son-in-law and their three young grandchildren. He peels back the layers on this most personal of losses to create a testament to familial love.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Death of a Child

Shows you how to find your song when one of your children dies. Mama searches all over for her old song, but learns that she must now sing a new song. Excellent for storytelling.

• Death of a Child

Ages 8-11. A compassionate yet straightforward story to assist young children and their caregivers as they deal with an impending death of a mother. The bright, childlike artwork and simple, straightforward language offer readers a hopeful message. The book does not specify what is wrong with the mother, so it could apply to a number of situations or illnesses.

• Children

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

The author uses her own experience of the suicide of her son to help others through the unique grieving process of a suicide survivor.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Death of a Child / Suicide

For persons experiencing fetal death. Deals with feelings, anger, guilt, questions, withdrawal, reaching out, dads, couples, relationships, statements that hurt, and memorializing the baby.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage

A good look into the possible causes, medical interventions and physical reactions to miscarriage. Goes into detail about feelings with the main message of “Be kind to yourself.”

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage

Honest and straightforward, this story explores the many emotions a child who has experienced a death may experience, from anger and guilt to sadness and bewilderment. Ultimately, Missing Mommy focuses on the positive―the recognition that the child is not alone but still part of a family that loves and supports him.

• Children

• Death of a Mother

A book of love and comfort for mothers who have experienced the deep sorrow of losing a child. Each page is like opening a gift…bright, beautiful, joyful illustrations and gentle, poignant words describe heaven from a child’s eyes.

• Death of a Child

Gail Sezna tells us of the tragic deaths of two of her three sons and the subsequent painful divorce by her husband of 25 years. Her youngest son Teddy died in a tragic boating accident and her oldest Deeg was killed 9/11/2001 in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Four months later her husband filed for divorce. Gail describes with courage and candor her struggle to pick up the pieces and move forward from overwhelming grief towards hope and healing.

• Death of a Child

• Divorce

A story of both a devastating tragedy and an exquisite triumph-and the agonizing, relentless conflicted process connecting these two oppositional pulls.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Death of a Child / Suicide

Draws on a personal tragedy of the author and 12 other bereaved families who have suffered the loss of a teen child. The book addresses topics such as normal grief response, the stages of grief, dealing with the holidays, sibling survivors, on-line grief resources and remembrance tokens and rituals.

• Death of a Child

• Death of a Teen Child

An inspiring memoir of life, love, loss, and new beginnings by the widower of bestselling children’s author and filmmaker Amy Krouse Rosenthal, whose last of act of love before her death was setting the stage for her husband’s life without her.

• Death of a Partner

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

For those who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of a child within the first year, this gentle resource offers: stories of hope and wisdom; practical advice and guidance, based on the experiences of many; and comfort and ways to honor and remember. Naming the Child creates a community of love and support for bereaving parents and siblings, written with a light touch and sensitive spirit.

• Death of a Child

• Miscarriage / Stillbirth / Infant Death

This book brings together diverse fields of study and offer a practical as well as multifaceted theoretical approach to how children cope with death. Using stories of children’s own experiences supported by data from a large research study, Silverman explains the wide range of effects of loss upon children, the challenges they face as they grieve, and ways of supporting them as they change and grow in the bereavement process.

• Helping Children & Teens

Effective treatment of the dying person and his or her family, educating the child for death and our striving for self-esteem and power, impact of the idea of death on the law, and the role of grief in mental health.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Historical

A young boy from California, Nicholas Green, was killed by highway robbers while vacationing in Italy with his family. His parents agreed to donate his organs, which went to seven Italians waiting for transplants. This story has changed lives around the world.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Homicide / Death of a Child / Organ Donation

Explores the four stages of losing a parent. Children often must endure the painful final stages of a parent’s life, the finality of their death, and their own grief while offering support for a surviving parent. Helps reader acknowledge and respect the differences in how different people process pain, explaining why all people do not feel the same after such a loss.

• General

• Death of a Parent

PARENT COUNCIL REVIEW® 'A young child struggles with his grief over the death of his fish. He is especially upset when others comment 'it was only a fish.' Then to add to his distress, his father flushes Puffer down the toilet. A wise aunt suggests a memorial service, and the story ends with a healing eulogy. A wonderful story for young children grieving over the death of a beloved pet.'

• Children

• Death of a Pet