Best Childrens Books about Death and Grief
Best Childrens Books about Death and Grief can provide children with a safe space to explore and understand their feelings and can also help them feel less alone in their grief.
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is an incredibly difficult experience, especially for children.
However, reading childrens books about death and grief can be a helpful tool in supporting children’s emotional well-being during these tough times.
Be sure to check out our extensive book lists for kids!
You can find these parenting and best children’s books about death and grief at your local library or through the affiliate links provided for your convenience.
It can be challenging to find the right words to explain death and grief in a way that children can understand.
Children’s books about death and grief can help children navigate the difficult emotions that come with losing a loved one.
Two great books for parents to help support their child through grief include:
Best Children's Books about Death and Grief
With over a million copies sold, this accessible, bestselling picture book phenomenon about the unbreakable connections between loved ones has healed a generation of readers.
Parents, educators, therapists, and social workers alike have declared The Invisible String the perfect tool for coping with all kinds of separation anxiety, loss, and grief. In this relatable and reassuring contemporary classic, a mother tells her two children that they're all connected by an invisible string.
2017 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Winner
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.
When something sad happens, Taylor doesn't know where to turn. All the animals are sure they have the answer.
With its spare, poignant text and irresistibly sweet illustration, The Rabbit Listened is about how to comfort and heal the people in your life, by taking the time to carefully, lovingly, gently listen.
This gentle story provides satisfying answers for a young child’s most difficult questions about what happens after this life, inviting “little cubs” to find comfort in knowing that God Gave Us Heaven.
Something Very Sad Happened is intended to be read to two- and three-year-old children to help them understand death and process the loss of a loved one.
Since the two- to three-year-old child cannot read, this story is intended to be personalized; certain words are color-coded in red to cue to you to substitute with the appropriate names and pronouns for the person who died.
A gentle and moving story about losing a friend, and the importance of always expressing your love.
Elfie and her owner grow up together, but growing up can mean having to say goodbye to the ones you love. This tender story is a perfect way to make the topic of loss a little less scary for kids (and grownups).
This loving story follows two cats through their days, months, and years until one day, the older cat has to go. And he doesn’t come back.
This is a poignant story, told in measured text and bold black-and-white illustrations about the act of moving on.
Why Do I Feel So Sad? is an inclusive, age-appropriate, illustrated kid's book designed to help young children understand their own grief.
The examples and beautiful illustrations are rooted in real life, exploring the truth of loss and change, while remaining comforting and hopeful.
For over 25 years, families have used When Dinosaurs Die to explain death, dying, and coping with grief and loss.
Straightforward and comprehensive, this indispensable book is a comforting aid to help young kids and families through a difficult time in their lives.
When the death of a relative, a friend, or a pet happens or is about to happen... how can we help a child to understand?
Lifetimes is a moving book for children of all ages, even parents too. It lets us explain life and death in a sensitive, caring, beautiful way. Lifetimes tells us about beginnings. And about endings. And about living in between.
A beautiful, honest portrait of loss and deep friendship told through the story of two iconic polar bears.
Ida, Always is an exquisitely told story of two best friends—inspired by a real bear friendship—and a gentle, moving, needed reminder that loved ones lost will stay in our hearts, always.
The beloved classic from a New York Times bestselling author has helped thousands of children and adults come to grips with life and death -- a warm, wonderfully wise, and strikingly simple story about a leaf named Freddie.
Appropriate for all ages -- from toddlers to adults -- and featuring beautiful nature photographs throughout, this poignant, thought-provoking story follows Freddie and his companions as their leaves change with the passing seasons and the coming of winter, finally falling to the ground with winter's snow.
All the woodland creatures — Mole, Frog, Fox, and Rabbit — love old Badger, who is their confidante, advisor, and friend. When he dies, they are overwhelmed by their loss. Then they begin to remember and treasure the memories he left them.
Written in rhyme, and using real language to describe real events, When Someone You Love Has Died is a secular children's picture book that gently walks children through a traditional experience they may encounter after the death of a loved one.
When Someone You Love Has Died validates your child's observations and feelings, while also providing strategies to support their ability to cope and to grieve.