Recommended Book List 

Preschool Age:

• A Book About Losing Your Bunny, by Joshua Cohen
• Sad Isn’t Bad – A Guidebook for Kids Dealing With Loss, by Michaelene Mundy- About the death of a grandparent.
• About Dying: An Open Book for Parents and Children Together, by Sara Stein
• The Empty Place: A Child’s Guide through Grief, by Roberta Temes
• The Dead Bird, by Margaret Brown
• When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death, by Laurie Brown 
• Always By My Side, by Susan Kerner
• The Goodbye Book, by Todd Parr
• This Book is For All Kids, But Especially my Sister Libby. Libby Died. by Jack Simon

Early School Age

• A Book About Losing Your Bunny, by Joshua Cohen
• Thumpy’s Story: A Story of Love and Grief Shared by Thumpy, the Bunny, by N. Dodge 
• Lifetimes: A Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children, by Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen
• The Tenth Good Thing about Barney, by Judith Viorst
• The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, by Leo Buscaglia 
• I Miss My Best Friend, by Penelope Lagos (pet loss)

School Age

• I Miss You: A First Look At Death by Pat Thomas and Leslie Harker
• Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant– For the loss of a pet
• Daddy’s Promise, by Cindy Klein Cohen and John Heine
• Today My Sister Died, by Ronee Domskez
• The Magic Moth, by V. Lee
• Children are Not Paper Dolls, by E. Levy
• My Twin Sister Erika, by I. Voge
• Aarvy Aardvark Finds Hope, by Donna O’Toole
• The Old Dog, by Sara Abbott
• Nanna, by Jennifer Bartoli
• When People Die, by Joanne Bernstein and Stephen Gullo
• About Dying, by Sara Bonnett Stein 

Late Elementary School Age to Early Adolescent

• Beat the Turtle Drum, by by C. Green
• Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
• How it Feels When a Parent Dies, by Jill Krementz
• Season of Discovery, by Gloria Gldreich
• First Snow, by Helen Coutant
• The Mountains of Tibet, by Mordicai Gerstein 

Teens

• The Grieving Teen: A guide for teenagers and their friends by Helen Fitzgerald.
• Weird Is Normal:  When Teenagers Grieve by Jennie Lee Wheeler
• If Only by Carole Geitner-about a teen that loses her parent to cancer.
• Straight Talk about Death for Teenagers: How to Cope with Losing Someone You Love, by E. Grollman
• Losing Someone You Love: When a Brother or Sister Dies, by E. Richter
• Facing Change: Falling Apart and Coming Together Again in the Teen Years, by Donna O’Toole
• Shira: A legacy of Courage, by Earl Grollman
• Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
• How it Feels When a Parent Dies, by Jill Krementz 

Adults Supporting Grieving Children

• Tear Soup: A recipe for healing after loss. A book for all ages. by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen
• Healing the Bereaved Child: Grief Gardening, Growth Through Grief and Other Touchstones for Caregivers and Healing a Child’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends and Caregivers, and Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart by Alan Wolfelt
• Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent by Donna Schuurman.
• Water Bugs and Dragonflies: Explaining Death to Young Children by Doris Stickney and Robyn Henderson Nordstrom
• Bereaved Children and Teens: A support Guide for Parents and Professionals, edited by Earl Grollman
• Guiding Your Child Through Grief, by Mary Ann and James Emswiler
• Talking about Death – A Dialogue between Parent and Child, by Earl Grollman
• The Grieving Child: A Parent’s Guide, by Helen Fitzgerald
• Life and Loss: A Guide to Helping Grieving Children, by Linda Goldman
• Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies, by William Worden
• The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss (and Learning to Tell the Truth about It) by Patty Dann

Adults  

• The Other Side of Sadness, What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Loss, by George Bonnano
• Grieving Right: Finding Your Story of Love in the Sorrow of Loss, by Patrick O’Malley
• In Lieu of Flowers, by Nancy Cobb (An Imagine favorite.)
• Dying Well by Ira Byocks
• Being with Dying by Joan Halifax
• Open to Hope:  Inspirational Stories of Healing After Loss by Dr. Gloria Horsely
• The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
• Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers, by Elizabeth Edwards
• A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss, Gerry Sittser
• The Unspeakable Loss – How Do You Live After a Child Dies, by Nisha Zenoff
• Shattered by Grief: Picking up the Pieces to Become Whole Again by Claudia Coenen

Loss of a Child

• Permission to Thrive, by Susan Angel Miller
• Resilient Grieving, by Lucy Hone
• Comfort by Ann Hood is a story of the loss of a child
• How to Survive the Loss of a Child by Catherine Sanders
• Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt about losing an adult child
• The Worst Loss:  How Families Deal with the Death of a Child by Barbara Rosof
• An Exact Replica of A Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken is a story of the loss of a baby.