I Miss You: Grief and Mental Health Books for Kids

As a teacher who often supports children through emotional challenges, I Miss You has been an invaluable tool. It explains death in an honest yet sensitive way, using simple language that young children can understand. The illustrations are comforting, and the book validates a wide range of feelings while reassuring kids that it’s okay to feel confused, sad, or even angry. I’ve shared this book with families after the loss of a loved one, and it’s helped open up healing conversations. A must-have for every school counselor, teacher, or parent navigating grief with a child.

If you have a child who has experienced a loss, this book explains the process of death. I use in my therapy sessions to increase their understanding & normalize their thoughts and feelings. Therapists, this is a good investment if you work with 12 and under.

I couldn't disagree more with the negative reviewers of this book who refer to it as frightening, too sad or not helpful to young children. To the contrary! I bought this book to help my 4-1/2 year old daughter come to grips with our dying pet, and it did just that. While this book is not aimed at dealing with the death of animals, it offers a clear, simple, sensitive explanation about death and how to cope with it. The writing is straight forward and the illustrations are charming. Highly recommend this book over others dealing with same topic. Grateful to finally find a book without an over-bearing religious slant. As an aside, if you're looking for books to help a child grieving the loss of a pet, may I also suggest: "Cat Heaven" by Cynthia Rylant and "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney" by Judith Viorst.

I bought this book for my boys to discuss my dad (their grandfather). Most of the other books that I was recommended were very metaphorical and not understood by my kids. This was the only book that really resonated with them in language they could understand. Although it made it difficult (for me) to read, the straightforward messaging really spoke to them and was helpful in explaining where grandpa went.

These books are never easy, as the situation that surrounds them is filled with hurt and longing. However, they also work wonders and make the complicated concept of loss and death so much easier for children to understand. My daughter lost her father at only 6 months old, so she doesnt remember him. As she is getting older (5 now) she asks more questions and is starting to experience the void. It is hard, but this book makes it easier and more approachable to talk about. Thank you for helping me, help my daughter with support, understanding, and comfort.

I bought this book to help my four year old daughter deal with the future grief of losing my father. It is such a difficult topic because at this age children are still not fully capable of understanding the permanency of death. She still has trouble understanding that he will never come back. However, she frequently asks to read this book at times when she is really missing him and wants to talk about it. This book has good questions towards the end that can help to get little ones talking about how they are feeling. In one particularly touching moment, the questions led to a good discussion where she told me that she thinks about him often and realizes that he lives on in her, just like in the Lion King. I highly recommend this book for anyone struggling with how to help their children deal with their grief. Warning, you will probably need tissues as you read through the book, but it is a good way to get both of you talking about your feelings at a very difficult time.

This book was recommended by a friend who is a retired funeral director. We had two significant deaths in our family and I wasn’t sure what to say to our four year old, especially since I took the deaths exceptionally hard myself. This book was easy for our daughter to understand and actually had parent/child interaction questions. It made it so easy for my daughter to tell us how she felt and for us to understand how she felt. I never would have thought to ask the questions That were in the book. I HIGHLY recommend buying this for children and parents alike. Death is hard on everyone. This made things Just a bit easier For all of us.

I ordered 5 different books dealing with death for pre-schoolers. This is a good one if someone close to the child has died. For a more general message of the cycle of life, get Life Times, or Invisible String. This one very gently deals with death so a child, 4 and up, can understand it. Excellent discussions on dealing with the feelings the child may have:"You may wish you had been nicer....But the way you behaved did not make that person die." Amazing occurrence: My friend's 6yr. old granddaughter picked up this book a week BEFORE her healthy grandfather tragically died in an accident. She told her mom she liked it. Mom glanced at it but did not purchase it. When I learned of the tragic death, I ordered this book to send to them, without any knowledge of the child's experience with it before. When they received the book, the child assumed the mother had purchased it after all.

Great for neurodivergent children who need clear explanations. Straightforward but not harsh. Great book, highly recommend.

I read this book to my 6 & 7 year olds on the evening that their grandmother passed away. It took about 1/2 hr to read (instead of approx 5 mins, taking into consideration the amount of text) as it opened up so much discussion. My 6yr old son particularly like the 'what about you?' questions found throughout the text, which allowed him to talk about his own personal feelings and/or experience. He then wanted to reread the book every night for about a week afterwards. I really believe it helped them to both settle that 1st evening, which they might not have been able to do without such a discussion. The book really helps you to expand on the subject of the passing of a loved one, and allows you to put your own personal slant on the subject, whether you are religious or not. I would highly recommend this book to any young family who have recently lost a loved one.

Excelente para trabajar el tema de la muerte con niños pequeños. Tanto en psicoterapia como desde la familia. Fácil de leer, muy claro y abierto a la diversidad religiosa.

Not a bad book, some more pictures of a funeral would be good so that the child has a better idea about what will happen. We have glued the pages about "souls" together as that is far too abstract for a small child to understand...and I don't personally believe in this!

This is such a wonderful resource to have when navigating a loss with a kid. I ordered this before my father passed away earlier this year. It explains a few concepts and customs around death, is very non- specific where it needs to be so will not offend most religions and customs, and has questions throughout the book that are brilliantly designed to get kids talking about their feelings about death. It’s such a fine line to walk while grieving the loss of my own parent who was the foundation of my world and a central part of hers - to guide a 5 year old through a loss so profound, provide the vocabulary to name and be open about their feelings, make sure they have the information they need to know the impact it is having on the adults around them (empathy), some clarity for reassurance (the truth but at an age appropriate level), an understanding of the finality of death and not give them information that fuels fear, nightmares or existential dread. Reading this book with her after we got my dad’s diagnosis and prognosis helped her and I start to process together and to start talking openly. The invisible string book is also good, but I feel like this is what I needed for a post-toddler age kid (would probably be good at any age over 5) who is a bit more insightful and is likely to have some deeper questions that they aren’t sure how to approach because they may be afraid to talk about it and trigger big emotions in their adults. It lays the groundwork to naturally begin conversations about death that can be very difficult for humans big and small to know how to start. The very open-ended format, the “some people do Things this way” or “you may see or feel this” type language is a great starting point for you to provide the specifics (“…and our family believes or does it this way”) and most of all taught her that it was ok to ask me any question. Maybe I have a future doctor here, but she ended up wanting an anatomy book so she could learn about the parts of the body and how they work/die and so she could know what the impacted areas look like. It was pivotal in this journey for us, and I highly recommend to parents who are navigating a loss with kids.