After a Parent’s Suicide: Helping Children Heal. Margo Requarth, $18.95

After a Parent’s Suicide is a compassionate guide for parent survivors on how to manage both the immediate and the long-term implications of the suicide; how to talk to your children and how to see them through the anguish to a place of healing, acceptance and life.

Cancer in Our Family: Helping Children Cope with a Parent’s Illness, 2nd Edition. Sue Heiney & Joan Hermann, $21.95

A parent’s cancer diagnosis can be extremely stressful to children, whether they’re toddlers or teenagers. This helpful, calming guide explains how to tell you how to talk to your children and help allay their fears each step of the way.

A Child's View of Grief. Alan Wolfelt, $9.95

Probably the most useful 40 pages in the literature. Informative and easy-to-read.

Cocoa's Collar: Tools to Help Young Children Who Have Special Needs Deal with Death. Garyanna Stalick & Wendy Goodwin, $33.95

Understanding death at any age is difficult. Explaining death to a child with very little functional language is even more of a challenge. Cocoa's Collar is designed to help parents and caregivers give a child with limited language skills the information and support to deal with the death of a loved one. Combining simple speech strategies with grief coping methods, the book demonstrates how to help a child who is functioning at or below the developmental age of three years. Using this information parents can create a social story regarding the circumstances facing their child.

The Colors of Grief: Understanding a Child's Journey through Loss from Birth to Adulthood. Janis Di Ciacco, $24.95

The Colors of Grief explores strategies for supporting a grieving child to ensure a healthy growth into adulthood. Drawing on the latest research in neurology and psychology, Janis Di Ciacco illustrates the child's grieving process using a model of development that employs 'key stages'. These range from preverbal infancy (0-2 years) through to early adulthood (about 25 years). She shows how a child's progress through these stages can be impaired by an early encounter with loss, which can contribute to cognitive, emotional and social difficulties. Drawing connections between bereavement, attachment issues and social dysfunction, the author suggests easy-to-use activities for intervention at each key stage, including infant massage, aromatherapy and storytelling.

This is a revealing and accessible book for both parents and professionals working with, or caring for, bereaved infants, children or young adults.

Companioning the Grieving Child Curriculum Book: Activities to Help Children & Teens Heal.Patricia Morrissey, $32.95

Based on Alan Wolfelt’s six needs of mourning and written to pair with Companioning the Grieving Child, this thorough 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. Sample activities include grief sock puppets, expression bead bracelets, the nurturing game, and writing an autobiographical poem. Activities are presented in an easy-to-follow format, and each has a goal, an objective, a sequential description of the activity, and a list of needed materials.

Companioning the Grieving Child: a Soulful Guide for Caregivers. Alan Wolfelt, $32.95

Renowned author and educator Alan Wolfelt redefines the role of the grief counselor in this guide for caregivers to grieving children. Providing a viable alternative to the limitations of the medical establishment’s model for companioning the bereaved, Wolfelt encourages counselors and other caregivers to aspire to a more compassionate philosophy in which the child is the expert of his or her grief — not the counselor or caregiver. The approach outlined in the book argues against treating grief as an illness to be diagnosed and treated but rather for acknowledging it as an event that forever changes a child's worldview. By promoting careful listening and observation, this guide shows caregivers, family members, teachers, and others how to support grieving children and help them grow into healthy adults.

An Empty Seat in Class: Teaching and Learning after the Death of a Student. Rick Ayers, $34.50

The death of a student, especially to gun violence, is a life-changing experience. For each of these tragedies, there is a classroom and there is a teacher. Yet student death is often a forbidden subject, removed from teacher education and professional development classes where the curriculum is focused instead on learning about standards, lesson plans, and pedagogy. What can and should teachers do when the unbearable happens? 

An Empty Seat in Class illuminates the tragedy of student death and suggests ways of dealing and healing within the classroom community. This book weaves the story of the author’s very personal experience of a student’s fatal shooting with short pieces by other educators who have worked through equally terrible events and also includes contributions from counselors, therapists, and school principals. Through accumulated wisdom, educators are given the means and the resources to find their own path to healing their students, their communities, and themselves.

Finding Your Own Way to Grieve: a Creative Activity Workbook for Kids and Teens on the Autism Spectrum. Karla Helbert, $25.95

Children and teenagers with autism can struggle to cope with the loss of a loved one, and the complicated and painful emotions of bereavement. This book explains death in concrete terms that the child with autism will understand, explores feelings that the child may encounter as a part of bereavement, and offers creative and expressive activities that facilitate healing.

With illustrations throughout, this interactive book begins with a simple story about what happens when people die. Each chapter then expands on the issues that have been raised in the story and offers a variety of coping skills exercises including writing, art and craft, cooking, movement, relaxation, and remembrance activities. Encouraging children with autism to express their loss through discussion, personal reflection, and creative activity, the book is ideal for children and teens to work through by themselves, or with the support of a family member or professional.

Help Me Say Goodbye: Activities for Helping Kids Cope When a Special Person Dies. Janis Silverman, $11.95 (4-8)

An art therapy and activity book for children coping with death. Sensitive exercises address all the questions children may have during this emotional and troubling crisis. Children are encouraged to express in pictures what they are often incapable of expressing in words.

Grief and Trauma in Children: an Evidence-Based Treatment Manual. Alison Salloum, $53.95

Grief and Trauma in Children provides easy-to-implement, ready-to-use therapy materials to help busy practitioners use grief and trauma interventions in real-world settings. All interventions in the book have been developed and researched with clinicians who faced challenging environments, including devastating natural disasters, and in communities where ongoing violence victimized children directly. Even in these stressful environments, clinicians found the interventions easy to implement, effective in helping children acquire coping skills, and effective in decreasing traumatic symptoms in order to proceed with grieving without impaired functioning.

Grief and Trauma in Children blends cognitive-behavioral therapy methods and narrative practices to present an integrated grief and trauma model that can be delivered individually, to a group of children, or to a family. The book uses the Draw, Discuss, Write, Witness (DDWW) method to help children explore narratives of resilience and build coping capacity, engage in restorative stories about what happened, and reconnect and reengage in meaningful ways that allow the child to enjoy life again and get back on-track developmentally. Grief and Trauma in Children also provides up-to-date research on childhood bereavement and trauma, a brief description of the theoretical framework of the Grief and Trauma Intervention (GTI) model, a description of session-by-session goals and activities, case examples with ways to address common challenges, and photocopiable tools for clinicians to easily implement the model, such as session agendas, fidelity checklists, handouts for parents, and activity sheets for children.

Grief in Young Children: a Handbook for Adults. Atle Dyregrov, $18.95

Grief in Young Children explores young children's reactions to death and loss, both immediately after the event and over time. Full of practical advice on issues such as how to keep children in touch with their memories, answer their questions, allay their fears and explore their feelings through play, this accessible book enables adults to work with children to develop an acceptance of grief and an understanding of death and loss.

The Grieving Child: a Parent's Guide. Helen Fitzgerald, $16.50

Explaining death to a child is one of the most difficult tasks a parent or other relative can face. THE GRIEVING CHILD offers practical, compassionate advice for helping a child cope with the death of a parent or other loved one. Parents of children from preschool age to the teen years will find much-needed guidance, providing invaluable suggestions for dealing with a child's emotional responses (including anger, guilt, and depression) and helping a child adjust to a new life.

Healing a Child’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends & Caregivers. Alan Wolfelt, $13.50

A compassionate resource, this volume addresses what to expect from grieving young people, and how to provide safe outlets for children to express emotion.

A Healing Place: Help Your Child Find Hope and Happiness after the Loss of a Loved One. Kate Atwood, $18.50

Compassionate advice for parents and caregivers of children who have lost a loved one.

Helping the Bereaved College Student. David Balk, $51.50

Approximately one-fourth of all college students suffer the loss of a family member or friend during their college career, yet the prevalence of bereavement on the college campus is largely unrecognized-sometimes by even the bereaved students themselves. This volume addresses the ways in which bereavement may affect the college student, particularly during the first year following a loss, and provides guidance for mental health professionals on how best to treat this underserved population.

The book considers the major models of bereavement, grief, and mourning as they apply to the student, and includes student narratives, treatment exercises and activities, and issues regarding self-disclosure. This volume will be a vital tool in helping college students to grieve in a constructive manner while avoiding potential obstacles to a successful college career.

Helping Children Think about Bereavement: a Differentiated Story and Activities to Help Children Age 5-11 Deal with Loss. Heather Butler, $45.50

Statistics indicate that up to 70% of schools have a bereaved pupil in their care at any given time.

HELPING CHILDREN THINK ABOUT BEREAVEMENT provides a four part differentiated story and activities to help normalize death and allow children to develop emotional liter acy to talk about it. Activities and guidance show teachers how to use the story to develop children’s emotional literacy and prepare them for bereavement, whether it affects them personally or through a friend’s bereavement. This book also offers support for teachers and parents outlining how children’s understanding of death develops and what can be helpful in supporting bereaved children. The story is presented at different levels:

Helping Kids Manage Grief, Fear and Anger. Terri Akin, David Cowan, Susanna Palomares & Dianne Schilling, $27.50

In this book you'll find effective experiences for helping children understand and cope with these three intense emotions which, left unmanaged, can lead to deep psychological disturbances and/or inappropriate acting-out behaviors. With this collection of activities and ready-to-use blackline masters, you can help children explore, understand and express their feelings in safe and acceptable ways. Special emphasis is placed on learning to make positive behavioral choices in response to feelings of grief, fear, and anger. This easy-to-use, yet powerful collection of experiences and information can have far ranging beneficial effects — both as an effective prevention program and a tool for immediate intervention.

How to Help Children through a Parent's Serious Illness: Supportive, Practical Advice from a Leading Child Life Specialist, Revised Edition. Kathleen McCue, $20.50

HOW TO HELP CHILDREN THROUGH A PARENT'S SERIOUS ILLNESS has become the standard work on an important subject.  Fully revised and updated, it is the 'go-to book' for supportive, practical advice.

This new edition also 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.

The Journey Through Grief and Loss: Helping Yourself and Your Child When Grief is Shared. Robert Zucker, $18.99

If your own grief has made it difficult for your to be fully available to your child, Robert Zucker provides a measure of comfort. The Journey Through Grief and Loss will reassure you that even while you’re grieving you can still be an effective and supportive parent.

Keys to Helping Children Deal with Death and Grief. Joy Johnson, $13.95

Keys to Helping Children Deal with Death and Grief explains the concept of death in ways children of different ages can understand. Author Joy Johnson, a bereavement specialist, helps parents and caregivers anticipate children's responses and needs, shows the reader how to explain funeral rites in meaningful ways and points out the importance of incorporating loss into positive personal memories.

Kids Grieve Too! A Handbook for Parents. Tom Easthope, $20.95

When faced with great loss, parents instinctively want to protect their children as much as possible from the ensuing grief. Yet in doing so, they may deny their children what they need most — honesty, knowledge and security — as they travel through uncharted emotional terrain.

Kids Grieve Too addresses the many important issues that accompany divorce; a serious and life-threatening illness in the family; a child’s own terminal illness; the death of a loved-one and suicide. The easy-to-use question and answer format helps parents and caring adults to do what is best for their children in times of need.

A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children: Rebuilding Your Family after the Death of a Loved One. Phyllis Silverman & Madelyn Kelly, $16.95

A comprehensive, thoughtful and commonsense book, A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children offers a wealth of solace, sound advice and hope.

Preparing the Children: Information and Ideas for Families Facing Serious Illness and Death. KathyNussbaum, $15.50

Most children cope much better with painful experiences if they are given honest information and preparation rather than protection from the pain. PREPARING THE CHILDREN offers practical and straightforward advice on understanding and anticipating children’s needs when a loved one is dying. Compassionate, honest, and insightful, this easy-to-read guide will be useful for families and professionals.

Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent is Sick. Paula Rauch & Anna Muriel, $20.95

Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent is Sick offers sound and compassionate advice on helping children cope when a parent is seriously ill. The authors demonstrate how you can address children's concerns and determine how children with different temperaments are really feeling. Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent is Sick discusses ways to ensure the child's financial and emotional security needs are met and reassure the child that he or she will be taken care of, regardless of the duration or outcome of the parent’s illness.

Still Here with Me: Teenagers and Children On Losing a Parent. Suzanne Sjöqvist, editor, $26.95

This book is a moving and thoughtful anthology of the experiences of thirty children and teenagers who have lost a parent. The accounts cover a variety of circumstances in which a parent died, including death from cancer, heart attack and involvement in an accident. Taboo experiences which are often avoided about are also covered, including death through alcoholism, natural disaster, war, suicide, and domestic violence. The book displays a courageous and insightful group of children and young people who prove that it is possible to talk openly about these subjects without stigma.

Talking about Death: a Dialogue Between Parent and Child. Earl Grollman, $23.00

Talking about Death is a classic guide for parents helping their children through the death of a loved one. With a helpful list of "os and don’ts", an illustrated read-along dialogue, and a guide to explaining death, Grollman provides sensitive and timely advice for families coping with loss. This redesigned and updated edition explains what children at different developmental stages can and can’t understand about death; reveals why it’s crucial to be honest about death; helps you understand the way children express emotions like denial, grief, crying, anger, and guilt; and discusses children’s reactions to different kinds of death, from the death of a parent to the death of a pet.

A Teen’s View of Grief, DVD. Alan Wolfelt, $42.95 (40 minutes)

This informative 40-minute educational DVD on teen grief contains in-depth information and compassionate advice for family, caregivers and professionals on how adolescents grieve after someone loved dies. Throughout this excellent, concise resource, Dr. Wolfelt's teachings are interspersed with comments from bereaved teens.

The Tomorrows Children Face When a Parent Dies, DVD. The Dougy Center, $34.50 (47 minutes)

Whether due to a long-term illness or a sudden death, a parent's dying is perhaps the most devastating loss a child, teen, or young adult will experience during their formative years. Many questions are answered by children, teens, and young adults in their own poignant words.

When Kids are Grieving: Addressing Grief and Loss in School. Donna Burns, $21.95

Most students experience some form of loss in their lives, and the resulting grief can profoundly affect their academic performance, emotional stability, and social interactions. Serving both as a resource and workbook, this reader-friendly primer helps educators and school counselors understand and respond to the extraordinary challenges that children and adolescents may face when dealing with loss and grief. Featuring helpful charts, quotes, activities, case studies, reproducible handouts, and resources from national organizations, this sourcebook offers strategies to help students affected by divorce; death of a parent, relative, friend, or pet; violence; chronic illness; and more. The author examines grief experiences at different developmental levels and illustrates how to:

• Respond appropriately to expressions of grief that are unique to children and adolescents
• Help students handle emotions associated with loss
• Promote communication and facilitate effective interventions
• Determine when to refer a child to a specialist
• Respect cultural attitudes toward loss and grief

When a Parent Has Cancer: a Guide to Caring for Your Children. Wendy Schlessel Harpham, $21.00

At some point in our lives, many of us will face the crisis of an unexpected illness. For parents, the fear, anxiety, and confusion resulting from a cancer diagnosis can be particularly devastating. How can you care responsibly for a child when you are in special need of care? How can life go on — for everyone in the family — when you are faced with months, even years, of treatment? When a Parent Has Cancer is a book for families written from the heart of experience. A mother, physician, and cancer survivor, Dr. Wendy Harpham offers clear, direct, and sympathetic advice for parents challenged with the task of raising normal, healthy children while they struggle with a potentially life-threatening disease. Also included is Becky and the Worry Cup, an illustrated children's book that tells the story of a seven-year-old girl's experiences with her mother's cancer. Together, these books provide a plan of action for you and your children to live meaningfully and well when life is at its most uncertain.

When a Parent is Sick: Helping Parents Explain Serious Illness to Children, 2nd Edition. Joan Hamilton, $12.95

This book provides parents and other caregivers with suggestions on how to approach children and teens with the information that their parent is seriously ill. The author reviews a child's understanding and response to serious illness at different stages of development. She provides suggestions of how adults may help the child cope with their feelings and with the daily disruptions the illness creates.

The book also includes chapters on what to do when a parent is dying, and what to do when a parent dies.

Also included is a list of books and other resources for parents and children who want to read further on the subject.

Joan Hamilton is a clinical nurse specialist in cancer care at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has worked with cancer patients and their families over the last 20 years.

When Something Terrible Happens: Children Can Learn to Cope with Grief. Marge Heegaard, $11.95

Activities to help children explore the fright, confusion, and insecurity caused by traumatic events in their lives.

Why Did You Die? Activities to Help Children Cope with Grief & Loss. Erika Leeuwenburgh & Ellen Goldring, $21.95

The death of a loved one is one of the most stressful events in adult life. For children, whose understanding of death is limited and who may not have the skills to cope with extreme emotion, death can be overwhelming. Why Did You Die offers exercises that help children understand death better; cope with sadness, anger, and fear; and develop self-care skills. Using an art therapy approach, this book gives kids creative avenues to express their feelings and to heal from their loss. It starts with an informative section for parents or other caregivers about how children's grief differs from adult grief. The sensitive activities in Why Did You Die demystify death, show them how to effectively express their feelings and move on after their loss. This book is appropriate for kids between the ages of six and twelve.