The hard part usually is not the day it happens. It is the sixth week, when everyone else has gone back to normal and a child is still furious about a lost ball, still setting a place at the table, still asking the same question in a slightly different way. Grief in children’s books looks like a fox wrecking his own garden, a girl corking her heart inside a bottle so nothing can get at it, and a boy walking to a phone booth that isn’t connected to anything so he can talk to someone who cannot answer. None of those books hurry anybody along, which is exactly why they work.
Bookroo’s collection of 510 children’s books about grief covers the whole range of what a child can lose — a grandparent, a parent, a friend, a dog, a home, or simply the way things used to be. Our fixed shortlist of 13 favorites below starts with wordless picture books for children too young to explain themselves and ends with two Newbery winners for readers who want a long story to live inside. If you need a book that explains what death is, our guide to books about death, grief, and bereavement is the better starting point; this one is about the months that come after.
There was a big cat and a little cat. Then the big cat is old, and then the big cat is gone.
Daisy loves her red ball more than anything. Another dog bites it flat, and Daisy is undone.
Two children afraid of being alone learn about a string made of love that reaches anywhere, even to people who have died.
After his mother’s funeral, a boy finds a gorilla in the garden — the only one who will actually talk about it.
A curious girl puts her heart in a bottle for safekeeping after the empty chair appears. The bottle works too well.
Evan and his dog keep a spectacular garden, until the day Evan is left in it alone with a shovel and a temper.
After the tsunami, a man builds a phone booth in his garden with a line that goes nowhere, and the whole village comes to use it.
Jack insists boys don’t write poetry, and definitely won’t explain what happened to the yellow dog.
Coyote and her father have lived in a school bus for five years, going anywhere except home.
Billy works two years to buy two coonhound pups, and the Ozarks give him everything and then take it back.
The summer after his father dies, Charlie is shipped off to his grandparents’ and handed a basketball.
Driving to Idaho with her grandparents, Sal tells the story of a friend whose mother left — and delays telling her own.
Sage’s best friend dies on Sage’s thirteenth birthday, at a sleepover Sage begged her to come to.
Read-alouds for the child who misses someone — quiet stories about anger, memory, and the strange comfort of small rituals, for ages 3–8.
A boy's game helps his grandpa reconnect with life.
A woodcarver is commissioned to create a set of Christmas figures for a widow and her son, leading to a transformation in his life.
A polar bear faces loss and finds comfort in memories.
A parent's love follows their child, no matter the distance.
Survive the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and find hope in a miraculous discovery.
A child navigates grief with a stopwatch, a symbol of lost time and cherished memories.
A girl struggles to keep her brother's memory alive as her family avoids mentioning him.
Two brothers face the lake without their father. Can they dive into memories?
Discover a heavenly realm where dogs find eternal joy and comfort.
A child navigates the loss of a best friend and finds a way to heal by remembering her and helping others.
Discover a magical place where the love for lost pets lives on forever.
Explore grief with children through simple language and vivid imagery.
Longer stories in which a loss has already happened and the whole novel is about living afterward — funny ones as well as sad ones, for readers ages 8–12.
A mysterious nanny arrives to mend a grieving family's broken bonds with a touch of magic.
In the wilderness, Ellie seeks healing secrets to save her comatose father.
A friendship forged in imagination faces a tragic test, altering two worlds forever.
A pig befriends a spider who devises a plan to save his life from slaughter.
Mason's friend vanished. Can he uncover the truth before it's too late?
A boy finds strength in his late father's journal, discovering poetry and hidden powers.
A young girl starts a snack business to fit in and faces unexpected challenges.
A girl battles nature and inner demons to survive a desert disaster.
A young genius seeks connection and family after a tragic loss.
A girl seeks the truth behind her friend's death, suspecting a jellyfish sting.
A castle changes, a kingdom in peril, a princess must save it.
Orphaned Emily faces a new life with stern relatives and hostile classmates.
