When a Grandparent Dies: A Kid's Own Remembering Workbook for Dealing with Shiva and the Year Beyond »

This workbook helps children to participate in the process of mourning, and overcome the awkwardness that often accompanies their participation in grieving rituals.

Drawing insights from both psychology and Jewish tradition, When a Grandparent Dies offers children guided exercises, rituals, and places to write, draw, list, create, and express their feelings.
"Long needed...splendid."
-Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People and To Life!

"Will bring support, guidance and understanding for countless children, teachers, and health professionals."
-Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, D.D., author of Talking about Death

Nechama Liss-Levinson, Ph.D. is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in rivate practice and the author of many articles on developmental milestones in the Jewish family, and the emotional impact of death and illness on children and adults.

Children's Literature

Aimed at Jewish children and their parents, the devices used to remember the dead are universally useful. Mourning doesn't end when the week of Shiva ends, Liss-Levinson says, but saved memories can make it less painful. She's realistic: "Sometimes, you feel someone always criticizes you....This is a page for you to write out your complaints. If you want it to be private, you can fold the page over when you are finished...." There's a page for a Special Recipe, and memories of the grandparent making it. There are pages for holidays, the gravestone, and a family tree. This book could be adapted, as there are significant things every family uses in remembering the dead. But the author has provided a great way to start. Th suggested age range depends on the child's reading ability and on the family's individual way of dealing with death.