A book for children, about death and grief
We really love this little book for little ones experiencing loss and grief, and kids who are curious and asking about death. The simple language, brevity, and beautiful illustrations make it suitable for 3 to 10 year olds, but it’s that kind of sweet and poetic book that many adults would love, so don’t rule it out as a gift for your grieving adult friend!
The concept of “life” can be difficult to explain to a young child, so we think wind is a lovely metaphor for life. It’s something that children recognise as invisible, yet real and which they have experienced.
Diverse spiritual perspectives on death
One of the other reasons we’d recommend this book is because it so beautifully supports individual meaning-making whilst also appreciating a range of social and cultural meanings and practices around death and grief. The book shares about different beliefs about “where the life goes after it’s left”, as well as different ways that people cope with grief after the death of a loved one. This makes it a beautiful resource for parents, caregivers, and grief support practitioners who want to elicit and support their child’s unique meaning-making. Parents who value teaching their children to appreciate diverse spiritual beliefs and cultural practices will love how this book offers a variety of ideas rather than a singular belief system or practice. And parents who wish to teach their children a particular belief system will probably find it amongst the ideas offered in the book.
A lovely resource for parents and for child therapists who offer grief support and practice within a culturally-appreciative and anti-discriminatory approach.
Here’s a link of a video reading of the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0iEqTu6JMg
Reference: Innes, S. & Agocs, I. (2014) Life Is Like The Wind. Barron’s Educational Series.