Reading List - Teens and Grief

Non Fiction

I Will Remember You - Laura Dower A guidebook for teen with information, quotations, poems, checklists, stories and lots of practical ideas for coping with the many aspects of grief.

When a Friend Dies - Marilyn E. Gootman An easy to read but informative book about feelings and responses to loss.

Straight Talk About Grief for Teenagers - Earl A. Grollman Suggests ways to deal with the grief and other emotions felt after the death of a loved one and how to go on living

How It Feels When a Parent Dies - Jill Krementz Eighteen children and teens (ages 7-16) tell, in their own words, what it means to have a parent die. They express their feelings, tell what happened, what hurt, what was confusing, what helped.

Teenagers Talk About Grief - June Cerza Wolf Teens talk about their experiences with death, the funeral, going back to school and the emotions felt while grieving.

Good Grief Rituals - Elaine Childs-Gowell Suggestions for meaningful rituals to mark the death of someone you love.

After Goodbye - Ted Menten How to begin again after the death of someone you love. Easy to read and gives some helpful suggestions on dealing with thoughts and feelings.

Hello From Heaven - Bill Guggenheim & Judy Guggenheim Over 350 first hand accounts of direct After Death Communication (ADCs) from people who have died to their surviving loved ones. Inspiring and powerful stories that may bring hope to the bereaved.

Motherless Daughters - Hope Edelman A comprehensive study of the effect of the death of a mother on daughters of all ages. Appropriate for older teens.

Early Winter - Howard Bronson A young man describes his grief at the death of his father.

Fiction:

A Matter of Time - Roni Schotter A social worker helps a sixteen year old girl learn to cope with the death of her mother.

Tiger Eyes - Judy Bloom A girl copes with the murder of her father in his 7-11 store and her own sense of guilt.

Face at the Edge of the World - Eve Bunting Jed feels responsible when his best friend Charlie dies by suicide. As Jed and his girlfriend search for the reasons for Charlie’s desperate unhappiness, he comes to terms with his grief and his guilt.

Surviving Sam - Karen Gravelle Pagan and her father survive an avalanche that kills her twin brother and her uncle. Pagan struggles with depression, guilt, pain and relations with her friends and family who try to cope in their own ways.

Say Goodnight, Gracie - Julia Reece Deaver A seventeen year old girl’s best male friend from childhood dies in a car accident.

Signs of Life - Jean Ferris Hannah and Molly are identical twins but personality opposites, Molly dies in a car accident and Hannah is left as an only child at the age of sixteen. Hannah and her parents spend a vacation in France trying to come to terms with their grief.

The Eagle Kite - Paula Fox Liam is told his father contracted AIDs from a blood transfusion but knows this is a lie. He struggles to build a relationship with his father and mother and deal with his feelings.

A Time for Dancing - David Hurwin Two young women are best friends and make plans for the future, which change when one is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The story shows their friendship and support as they share their anger and love and say goodbye.

Of Love and Death and Other Journeys - Isabelle Holland A fifteen year old girl struggles for acceptance by her father after her mother’s death.

Loving Ben - Elizabeth Laird A teenaged girl’s experience of the death of her hydrocephalic brother and her changing ideas about character and friendship.

A Ring of Endless Light - Madeline L’Engle A fifteen year old girl facing the death of her grandfather finds comfort with a pod of dolphins she is researching.

After the Rain - Norma Fox Mazer Rachel’s gruff grandfather is dying of cancer. Rachel gets to know her grandfather better before he dies, and, with the support of her family, grieves his death.

My Brother Stealing Second - Jim Naughton Bobby’s brother and Annie’s parents die in a car accident involving alcohol. They support each other as they deal with their feelings of anger and shame.

A Formal Feeling - Zibby Oneal Anne, home from boarding school, has trouble accepting her new stepmother’s presence in the house that holds memories of her mother.

How Could You Do It Diane? - Stella Pevsner Bethany struggles to find the reasons why her sister died by suicide, while her parents try to ignore it.