Grief Lending Library

When 16-year-old Tessa suffers a shocking accident in gym class, she finds herself in heaven (or what she thinks is heaven), which happens to bear a striking resemblance to her hometown mall. In the tradition of It's a Wonderful Life and The Christmas Carol, Tessa starts reliving her life up until that moment. She sees some things she'd rather forget, learns some things about herself she'd rather not know, and ultimately must find the answer to one burning question--if only she knew what the question was.

• General

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

In this wise and intimate book, the artist and writer draws insights from her personal loss and also her training as an end-of-life doula to explore the complex, heart-rendering process of grief.

• General

When we hear that someone close to us has been diagnosed with cancer, we want nothing more than to comfort them with words of hope, support, and love. But sometimes we don’t know what to say or do and don’t feel comfortable asking. With sensitive insights and thoughtful anecdotes.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Cancer

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

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

Learn how a death of a loved one can impact a teen, and how to help. Explains common grief reactions of teenagers, specific challenges grieving teenagers face, when to seek professional help, and advice from other parents.

• Helping 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

Sharing her own story of loss and hope with the biblical story of Job, Nancy Guthrie takes her readers by the hand and guides them on a pathway through pain – straight to the heart of God.

• General

• Religious

Features the artwork of seven adults who experienced the sudden and unexpected death of a loved one or ones. A statement involving their loved one(s) death proceeds their artwork. Readers are then able to observe each person, through their artwork, gradually work through their grief over a period of weeks, months and years. They used their artwork as a way of exploring themselves - shaping, defining and eventually transcending their grief experience.

• General

Suggestions for coping with grief during the holidays.

• General

• Holidays

"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

A collection of sermons appropriate for the Christian funeral.

• Professional

• Funeral Rites / Religious / Historical

Case histories and personal experience; as a volunteer, the author presents specific information on patient care, medication techniques, funding, staffing, administration, home care programs, and architectural requirements for inpatient units.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Professional / Historical

The Hot Young Widows Club isn’t just for people who have lost a spouse, but an essential tool for anyone who has gone through a major life struggle. Based on her own experiences and those of the listeners dedicated to her podcast, Terrible, Thanks for Asking, Nora offers wise, heartfelt, and often humorous advice to anyone navigating a painful period in their lives. Full of practical guidance, Nora also reminds us that it’s still okay to laugh, despite your deep grief. She explores how readers can educate the people around them on what to do, what to say, and how to best to lend their support. Ultimately, this book is a space for people to recognize that they aren’t alone, and to learn how to get through life’s hardest moments with grace and humor, and even hope.

• Death of a Partner

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

A continuation from Volume 1, Volume 2 offers interested guests the same straightforward “how-to” information for other religions and denominations in North America with smaller memberships.

• General

A booklet on the importance and the practice of self-care for caregivers to the dying and the bereaved. This practical booklet addresses: why excellent self-care is essential; the art of erasing "worktapes"; caregiver fatigue syndrome; the over caring caregiver; the bereavement caregiver's self-care guidelines.

• Professional

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

Provides insight into the process of grief and offers practical advice on how to be a comfort to others. With specific discussion on a variety of difficult experiences--ranging from illness to job loss to divorce to natural disasters--it also includes resources and advice from experts, professionals, and individuals whose words of wisdom can guide you through these difficult experiences.

• General

• Helping a Friend

Gives the reader what he or she needs at each step in the process of recovering from a loss.

• General

Explains why the loss of a parent is different from other loses, and using examples from her own experience, the author shows how it is possible to work through the grief.

• General

• Death of a Parent

Offers a portrait of the experience of dying that makes clear the choices that can be made to allow each of us his or her own death.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

Suggestions to help grieving people of all ages with the adjustments that must be made during the holidays and other significant days following the death of someone loved.

• General

• Holidays

For children ages 4 and up. At her grandmother’s beach cottage, Annie reveals her father’s sexual abuse of her to a dove who helps her heal and learn to trust again. Lists guidelines for adults to help sexually abused children.

• Children and Teens

• Abuse

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

This book is designed to help kids, including children with autism spectrum disorder or other additional needs, to understand what it means when someone in their life has cancer.

• Children

• Disabilities / Cancer

Using a question and answer format, it explores the changes and feelings a child may experience during a divorce, and provides ideas to help cope with this life change. Illustrated with SymbolStix, which uses a symbol-based language for visual thinkers, this book explains a difficult topic to children who might otherwise struggle to understand it, and gives additional guidance for guardians.

• Children

• Divorce / Disabilities

Ages 3-8. Deals with childhood guilt; looks at feelings when there’s a family fight, a divorce, illness, injury and death. Let’s kids know that their thoughts don’t control the world.

• Children

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

Provides a valuable anchor for the griever who faces the challenges of a sudden loss and needs to rebuild their life. Includes grief recovery exercises.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

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

A beautiful, honest portrait of loss and deep friendship told through the story of two iconic polar bears. Gus lives in a big park in the middle of an even bigger city, and he spends his days with Ida. Ida is right there. Always.Then one sad day, Gus learns that Ida is very sick, and she isn’t going to get better. The friends help each other face the difficult news. Slowly Gus realizes that even after Ida is gone, she will stay in his hearts, always.

• Children

A teacher’s experience in pioneering courses on death and dying for junior students.

• Helping Children & Teens

Ages 6-13. A warm, sensitive story of how one little boy is encouraged and supported to find his own way to remember his best friend. Written in simple, honest language, and the warm, expressive watercolors tenderly express the sensitive story of children’s friendships.

• Children and Teens

• Death of a Friend

A stunning debut about one girl's journey through loss and grief. She dares to bare her innermost fears, hurts, and wishes, and even allows herself to have a flowering crush on a boy in the school band. She also finds out deep secrets about her mother which she never knew. It's a year that will change Corinna's life forever.

• Teens

Ages 2-5. When a child is in pain, imagining scenes that are soothing or uplifting may help reduce the discomfort. This book is a great tool for introducing children to the idea of using their imaginations to cope with pain, whether by itself or as part of a more comprehensive pain management plan.

• Children

• Pain

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

Contains reminiscence recipes to recapture the sights, sounds and even smells that bring back the lesson and the laughter from the past. This self-help book preserves family histories and local culture in addition to guiding the reader to establish rituals for long-term bereavement benefits.

• General

The true story of a young widow's anguish and the paradoxical enrichment grief can bring.

• Death of a Partner

A moving collection of funeral sermons preached by Roy C. Nilsen during his forty years of ordained ministry in the Lutheran Church.

• General

• Religious

A collection of quotations, poems, ancient proverbs, and stories from the likes of Winston Churchill, Madeleine L’Engle, and Jonathon Lazear himself. This book acts as a companion to your grief whenever and wherever you might need it.

• General

Anthology of writings about the process of mourning reveals the nature and progress of grief.

• General

Illuminating the impact of loss and grief on our psychological and emotional lives, this book provides vital information to ease painful transitions and facilitate healing. The author emphasizes that dealing with the death of a loved one involves more than picking up the pieces and moving on; rather, healing is an ongoing journey on which grief is a constant companion.

• General

An anthology of reading on the subject of death.

• General

• Historical

For women who have terminated a pregancy. Provides ways to promote inner healing.

• General

• Abortion

Looks at differences between men and women as they go through the grieving process. It is based on experience and observation by someone who has gone, and is still going, down the path of grief recovery.

• General

The author shows us how, through our concern, our compassion, and our prayers we can comfort the dying and help guide them toward the light of risen life.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Religious

The author has written a very moving, simple, and extremely practical book for all those who wonder how to be present to sick and dying people. This book allows for a very intimate, personal, spiritual communion when we often feel hopeless and powerless.

• Professional

• Religious

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

Ages 4-8. This simple story reminds children and adults they are never truly alone. As the mother in the story explains, “People who love each other are always connected by a very special string made of love. Even though you can’t see it with your eyes, you can feel it deep in your heart and know that you are always connected to the ones you love.”

• Children

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

When Joshua's puppy is killed by a car accident he learns that some surprises come wrapped in the "package" of loss. We encourage adults to talk about these gifts with children. Sensitive, caring adults are made not born. The book is written for children ages 5 - 11 years.

• Children

• Death of a Pet

Whether teens are in the midst of their first grief experience or have experienced grief before, It Won't Ever Be the Same is designed to support them. Reflections, analogies, and suggested activities within the pages guide teens in working through and making sense of their personal and complex grief experiences, and words and artwork from other grieving teens help them feel less alone and more connected.

• Teens

Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we try to help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides―as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner―Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing. She debunks the culturally prescribed goal of returning to a normal, "happy" life, replacing it with a far healthier middle path, one that invites us to build a life alongside grief rather than seeking to overcome it.

• General

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

Look through the eyes of a child again. When something unexpected, disappointing, or traumatic occurs, children feel a very real sense of loss. They may respond with fear or with anger. Most likely they are confused. They have questions they want answered. They need help from their parents or others who care to understand and process their grief. It’s Okay to Cry offers practical help for parents. It explains the symptoms of loss and unresolved grief so that parents can recognize them and walk alongside their children on the path to recovery.

• Helping Children

Since his mother was killed in the line of duty in Iraq, Derrick is building a doomsday shelter to prepare for the apocalypse when he makes friends with Misty, the girl next door.

• Children and Teens

• Death of a Parent / Military

Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.

• General

Humphry depicts his empathy with his wife's pain from cancer, his own anticipatory grief and how he helped her to die.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Death of a Partner / Historical

Defines the six reconciliation needs of mourning, followed by a series of short, reflective passages. A spiritual companion to mourners.

• General

The author identifies three different cycles of mourning when someone you love is murdered: crisis, conflict and commencement. Covers second victimization and celebrating life.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Homicide

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

This book gives innovative application of the five love languages creates an entirely new way to touch the lives of the five million Americans who have Alzheimer’s, as well as their fifteen million caregivers. At its heart, this book is about how love gently lifts a corner of dementia’s dark curtain to cultivate an emotional connection amid memory loss.

• Alzheimer's Disease

A psychotherapist explains the grieving process and suggests sources of comfort and healing. Includes bibliographical references.

• General

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 poignant story, straightforward and honestly told, fills a long-felt need for the parents of children with malignant and potentially fatal disease.

• Helping Children

• Terminally Ill Children

It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

This biography tells the story of Glenn (“Mac”) McDole, one of the eleven young men who escaped the Palawan Massacre of WWII.

• General

• WWII

Last things first tells the medical and legal story of advance directives, why it is important to document wishes for end-of-life care and how easy it is to create this simple – yet vital – record of your values and wishes for care.

• General

• End of Life Planning

…an invigorating new collection of warm, thoughtful poems from one of today's most popular poets, offering heartfelt comfort and realistic hope for those periods in our lives when we confront our own loneliness and anxiety.

• General

Excellent for parents who want to help their children grieve while grieving themselves. Includes all the information about children and grief, plus includes tools and resources.

• Helping Children

Discusses the questions, fears and fantasies many children experience when a parent or someone close to them dies.

• 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

The death of a life partner poses unique challenges for lesbians. This book reveals the touching and very personal stories of twenty-five women, including the author, who were widowed at a young age and forced to create a new life without their life partners. The book follows the widows from the time the couple met, to the time when one of the partners died, and beyond, to show how the surviving partner coped with her loss.

• Death of a Partner

• LGBTQ

Twenty-something Holly has moved to Brighton to escape her grief. But now that she's here, sitting on a bench, listening to the rolling waves, how is she supposed to fill the void her boyfriend left when he died? She had thought she wanted to be on her own. Beautifully written, Let Me Be Like Water is a moving and powerful debut about loneliness, friendship, the extraordinariness hiding in everyday life.

• General

• Death of a Partner

When adults want to support their child and make sure their worries and questions are addressed, this book: uses gentle honest words to start conversations, supports a variety of feelings and typical reactions from kids, provides inclusive illustrations that are representative of many families, no matter the dynamics, race, or culture, encourages families to find a way to remember and memorialize their baby that feels good to them, includes tips for adults and extra suggestions about some hard questions kids can ask. This book uses words and themes that are appropriate for kids ages 2-11.

• Children

• Sudden Death of an Infant Sibling

Todd's wife Lisa reveals what really happened on that ill-fated flight, as well as poignant glimpses of a genuine American hero. She talks candidly about Todd's growing-up years, their marriage and last week together, and then family moments without him-the devastating day her children learned their daddy had died, how they celebrated his first birthday without him, the mix of grief and joy when she gave birth to their third child, and how she's found the confidence to go on in the face of such tragedy and loss. It's no wonder that, through this unpretentious homemaker and mother, an entire nation can find hope, inspiration and strength.

• Death of a Partner

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

The author offers the kind of compassion and insight that can only come from one who has lived through deep loss himself. Among other loses, he has had to face the death of a fiancée, a beloved grandmother, and a favorite college professor. From these experiences, he has drawn the kind of insight that will help others walk through the dark, seemingly endless times of grief. With honesty, passion, and perspective, he shares the little things that eased him forward and the words of comfort that carried him to a place of strength.

• General

How do you explain death to a 6 year old? In his book, “A Letter to Mickey,” Jay Keller does just that! Simple language, colorful illustrations and large print make the text easy to read and understand. Written from a Christian perspective.

• Children

• Religious

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

• Death of a Child

• Men & Grief

Recording the full range of mourning from intense shock to moments of exceptional affirmation, Klaus’s stories and reflections on loss bear witness to universal truths about the first and most significant year of mourning.

• Death of a Partner

The cultural expectation for sadness, loneliness, and despair when you feel relief, happiness, and even joy, only adds to the guilt and conflict felt by many "relieved grievers." Elison and McGonigle here share their own and others' stories, compassionate clinical analysis, and pragmatic counsel. Wise, compassionate, and groundbreaking, this book expands the traditional definition of grief, and, in so doing, generously validates the feelings that many of us feel obliged to hide.

• General

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

Shows how Scripture can answer our questions and concerns regarding the hereafter.

• General

• Religious

Real-life accounts of people who have experienced “clinical death” and been revived.

• General

• Near Death Experiences / Historical

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

A guide for parents, educators, clergy and health care professionals to handle children’s loss and grief issues. Includes bibliographical references and index.

• Helping Children

The author replies to questions put to him by Norman French; one being, “Is there life after death?”

• General

• Historical