Bereavement and Loss

Young children who experience the death of a loved one need help in processing their grief. Bibliotherapy can be a helpful method for easing children through the myriad emotions they experience in this situation. For this study, ten children's books about death and its aftermath were analyzed to determine whether or not they used developmentally appropriate language and were conceptually truthful. Bowlby's stages of grief were used as a basis for analysis of the books. Findings indicate that seven of the books were excellent resources to use with young children and three were not appropriate for young children. One book was found to be a very good book for older children but not for younger children.