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.

This is a very good book for children who are experiencing grief at the loss of a parent, grandparent, or sibling. I highly recommend this book.

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 really helped me to explain how to feel after losing someone to my son. After reading it a few time I feel like he’s able to communicate how he misses mima and is not having challenging behaviors to express his grief. I think this is a useful tool for parents that don’t know how to explain large feelings to little kids.

This books gives a clear and simple explanation about death without complicated religious concepts about heaven or god. I only regret that the author did not go a little bit further by mentioning something about cremation as an alternative to the burial and by not using the classical old figure of the person who died. I am looking for ways to explain to a 5 year old girl from a non religious family what happened to her young mother who died and was cremated. This book helped a lot more than others and I highly recommend it. I also recommend reading "When Charlotte Mom's Died" from Cornelia Spelman and wish I could find more work done for these boys and girls who loose relatively young people and not only their grandparents.

I ordered this for my 4 year-old when her great grandfather passed away. The book did a wonderful job of presenting the facts about life and death, as well as explaining, and therefore preparing her for, The funeral and memorial service we attended. In the time leading up to the memorial my little one asked to bed read this book every night before bed, I honestly think it prepared her in a way I could not. I ordered a few books for her about death, or that claimed to be. This by far was the best. The others beat around the bush or used the death of a pet to explain it, but this book presented all the information in a thourough yet age appropriate manner.

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.

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.

Having visited the city library, first I am in a position to report that there are a lot of very strange books for kids on this subject. This book is not one of those! It is excellent. The language is simple and concise with beautifully sympathetic and empathetic art work. The book starts by briefly covering the life cycle and the ways that people can die - without being graphic or scary. It then moves on to explaining funerals and the ways a person might feel after someone they love has died. It ends by discussing how we can remember people and what might happen after death, in terms of cultural beliefs, without talking specifically about religions. It's a comforting book and has really helped my four year old understand his Grandpa's death.

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!