Help Me Say Goodbye: Activities for Helping Kids Cope When a Special Person Dies

by Janis Silverman

An art therapy and activity book for children coping with death. Sensitive exercises address all the questions children may have during this emotional and troubling crisis. Children are encouraged to express in pictures what they are often incapable of expressing in words.

Genres: Grief, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1998

Reviews

[PottWab Regional Library]

O

[Arin Brutlag · Rating 4 out of 5]

This workbook is designed to be used by children who have a special person in their life who is dying. Each page is primarily blank, with directions for drawing or writing about specific topics. There is a resource section toward the middle with bullet-pointed ideas about how to deal with grief and remember the special person. The remaining pages focus on growth and recovery after the death. At times, the directives given to the reader may lead their drawings in a certain direction; most allow for considerable creativity in expression. 32 pages.

Resources: There is a preface and a note about professional use.

[Abby Peskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a workbook for helping a child process grief. It could be used with any age of kid, as long as the adult working with the child explained each step of the book to children who could not read, or filled it out with them. It does a great job of helping the bereaved child process both the life and death of the person who died. Each page presents an opportunity for the child to draw or write something, like what they feel when they are grieving, who they can go to for help, and what they can do to cope with their feelings.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has some good techniques to use with children, in a style where the child can fill it in right in the book. Useful for a parent. For a therapist, it is much of what is used in children's bereavement work.