World Book Day (6th March 2025) is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the power of books for children and young people who may be living with grief. Take a look at some of the books our Family Support & Bereavement Services suggest for children & young people.
World Book Day: Helping Children Understand Grief Through Reading
6th March 2025
World Book Day: Helping Children Understand Grief Through Reading
World Book Day is a wonderful opportunity to inspire children and young people to explore the joys of reading. Books open doors to new worlds, spark imagination, and encourage learning. Beyond entertainment, reading can also be a powerful tool for emotional support, offering comfort and guidance in difficult times.
Books are a helpful approach to the sensitive and difficult subject of grief and loss from the death of a loved one. Books can help children and young people understand what they may feel in their grief when they experience a loss. This helps normalise the wide range of big emotions and feelings in their own individual experience of grief.
Suggested Books for Children Coping with Grief
Our Family Support & Bereavement Services Counsellors have suggested a range of books that provide comfort, understanding, and guidance for children navigating grief. These books use engaging stories, beautiful illustrations, and interactive elements to help young readers process their emotions in a supportive way:
1. How I Feel: Grief Journal for Kids
Author: Mia Roland
Recommended Age: 8-12 years
When a child or young person has experienced the loss of a loved one it’ s normal for them to feel big emotions that can be overwhelming and confusing. This book provides a gentle, clear approach with a variety of activities that encourages deeper exploration of their experience through grief and loss. The book provides information on feelings around loss, the importance of self-care, with simple, useful tips and ideas in looking after yourself and strategies to help you cope and manage feelings.
2. The Hare-Shaped Mole
Author: John Dougher
Recommended Age: 5-9 years
This children’s book is a beautifully illustrated story that gently explores the subject of grief and loss. The story provides a sensitive approach to the topic, helping to open up conversations with care for the young audience. The rhyming story follows Bertle the hare as he is going through the different stages of grief and loss, and the emotions that he experiences and feels, helping the reader gain more insight, understanding and awareness of the subject.
3. The Burst Balloon
Author: Cher Louise Jones
Recommended Age: 6-10 years
This story explores grief and loss when it can all be too much. The story follows, Jack, a young boy who has lost his grandfather and it all becoming too much when his gift of his balloon to cheer him up bursts. The illustrations and theme of the story explore Jack’s family coming together, and with comforting wise words from his grandma help offer solace to Jack as he grows around his grief.
4. Why Do I Feel So Sad?
Author: Tracy Lambert
Recommended Age: 5-7 years
Through beautiful illustrations and context, this storybook explores the ways in which grief can impact and make you feel. It approaches gently the feelings of sadness that come with grief, loss and change. It poses questions that are appropriate for the child to be able to respond and reflect on, opening deeper conversations and helping establish their own understanding of grief and loss. It provides information on how to uplift themselves through their grief and support self.
5. Grief Journal for Kids: Guided Prompts for Processing Grief and Finding Emotional Healing
Author: Hope Lovgren
Recommended Age: 7-13 years
Designed as a guided journal for children and their caregivers, this book encourages open discussions about emotions. Through prompts and activities, it helps children process their grief, gain awareness, and find emotional healing in a supportive way.
6. The Invisible String
Author: Patrice Karst
Recommended Age: 6-9 years
This heartwarming illustrated story softly explores the subject of grief and feelings that can arise from a loss, exploring the issue of separation and worry that can occur. The story explores the continued bond and connection following the loss of a loved one, and the importance this can have in healing. The story approach helps address these challenging subjects, helping children to talk at a deeper level of their love and loss of their loved one, and helping them to understand that even through death, their bond remains.
7. Someone I Love Has Died: A Grief Activities Book For Children
Author: Catherine Stephenson
Recommended Age: 6-11 years
This is an interactive activity book aimed at helping younger children and young people to explore and understand their feelings in grief. The book provides resources designed to help children navigate their grief, offering guidance and activities that bring comfort and are a creative outlet for their emotions.
The Power of Books
Books can be an invaluable resource in helping children navigate grief, offering comfort, understanding, and a safe space to explore their emotions. By providing stories that reflect their experiences and journaling activities that encourage expression, books can support children in finding their own path to healing.
KEMP Family Support & Bereavement Services provide counselling and emotional support for children and young people from the age of five. Support is available with or without an existing connection to KEMP Hospice.
Find out more about how to make a referral.
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