During the last few days, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be sad. I still feel the pain and loss that someone close to me lost their child last fall. I think it's hard to lose someone who has lived a long time. I also think it's hard to lose someone who is sick. It's a completely different thing when you lose a young person and they die without warning.I want you to go to the literature and read and learn and work it up. Information can be controlled.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is a book I'll always read when I'm going through a hard time because of a sudden loss. Several years ago, I read it. It was long before any of this happened, so I read it. After her husband died of a heart attack, Didion turned to books so that she didn't feel so alone. Totally, this is what I was going for! Books can be a source of comfort and help, and at no time is that more important than after a death. The following list is a mix of memoir, fiction, and books for kids. They either deal with the death of children or young people, either your own or those of people close to you. Or they are meant to help other young people who are grieving the death of a friend or peer.

Books To Read When Coping With the Loss of a Child

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

The best book by Joan Didion is called "The Year of Magical Thinking," but her memoir from 2012 is just as heartfelt. She died soon after her father. In this book, she talks about the questions that all parents have, the love that parents have for their children, and the pain that comes when a child dies.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

George Saunders, a well-known short-story writer, has written his first novel. It won the Man Booker Prize. Lincoln in the Bardo is a mix of historical fiction and imagination. It's a supernatural look at the nature of life and death. Willie Lincoln, who died of typhoid at age 11 while his father was in the White House, is the main character of the whole story. He is in a strange purgatory full of spirits. If you're a parent who's lost a child, this might not be the first book you turn to. But it's very good at portraying the sadness of a grieving parent and how love changes after a death.

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Loved author Salvage the Bones wrote this memoir. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography in 2014. Ward writes about five young men in her life who died over the course of five years. She does so with clarity and beauty. As she asked herself why, she started to see the cycles of racism, poverty, and addiction that trap young black men in destructive patterns. This helped her understand why she was so angry.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

People who were close to a young person who died a lot can be very hurt when that person dies, and it can be hard for them to deal with it. Books that help them understand what they're going through are very important. This young adult book is about Leigh, who is half Asian and half white. She goes to Taiwan after her mother killed herself. Being told by Leigh's grandparents that her mother isn't dead, but has become a bird that brings her gifts of memory, Leigh thinks that her mother is still alive but has become a bird that brings her gifts of memory.

The Fall of Freddie The Leaf by Leo Buscaglia

I read this book a lot as a child. Remember when I was a kid and my aunt told me how much she loved how simple the book made death seem. "Wait, what?" The Fall of Freddie the Leaf is a beautiful story with beautiful pictures of fall foliage. It's an allegory that helps kids understand life and death in a way that they can understand.

April Fools Day by Bryce Courtenay

Life's bad luck had been very hard on this son. That's not all: It's also a story about how the whole family looked out for and cared for him during his life. When one member of the family is sick for a long time, it affects everyone in the family. Seeing someone you love get sick for years is one of the worst things in the world. You want to take over their pain.

As heart-wrenching as it can be at times, this story shows how strong people can be together. Everyone should be happy about that. Being there for a friend or family member is often all we can do. Thank you, Bryce, for telling me this heartwarming story about your son. He would have been so proud of what he did, which showed how brave he was. Please rest in peace.

Heaven's Child by Caroline Flohr

Flohr had five kids and was a very busy wife and mother when her 16-year-old twins died in an accident.

Caroline paints an intimate picture of a nightmare in a small town and opens up her family's life for the reader to see. She captures the reader in a web of raw emotions in events that could happen to any family.

Heaven's Child is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It looks at the spiritual journey of loss and love, hope and healing. It's a story about being careful, being alert, living in the moment, and being aware that each day could be our last. People need to accept their own humanity and connect with each other in this story. Caroline Flohr tells the story of how she and her family and friends went through a lot of different emotions after a car accident killed eight teenagers who were taking a midnight joyride. Flohr wants the reader to think of death as the start of a new journey, not the end.

In Heaven's Child, a riveting memoir of life and death, the author tells an unforgettable story about the courage of those who weave tragedy into their lives. Heaven's Child is a powerful short read!

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