Customer Reviews

I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand...: A Child's Guide to Grief and Loss

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When the main character loses several important figures in her life- her pet dies, her father moves away, etc.- she feels the pangs of loss. This is a great book to read to children! So many children have experienced loss- when their parents get divorced, a pet dies, a grandparent dies, or a good friend moves away- but have no way of knowing that what they are feeling is NORMAL. This book helps explain that to children- that feeling sad is normal when you lose someone or something important to you. I recommend this book to anyone who has any contact with children- teachers, parents, sitters, etc. It is a great book!

I picked up "I Wish I Could Hold your Hand: A Child's Guide to Grief and Loss" when my 5-year-old daughter's great grandmother was ailing and nearly 90 years old. It was a very sweet book and helped her cope with losing Grandma, which happened the next week.

After my husband told my daughter that Grandma had died, I read her this book again, and I think we were both blessed by it.

The book encourages children to expressing their emotions in healthy ways, telling them it's OK to be sad or even angry, and to cry. It gives them ideas for what to do when they miss the person, such as drawing them a picture, even if the person will never see it.

It could be used by a family of any faith tradition. It lends the idea that the person who is gone will always be with us. In our family we interpret that as them being in heaven, but it could also mean the person is with us in our memories or our hearts.

This book could be used in many situations where a loved one is gone, such as if someone goes to jail or moves away. I skipped over a couple words when it got to the part about a loved one going to jail. (We were dealing with Grandma's death and I didn't really want to stop and answer her inevitable questions just then, or scare her that it might happen to me or my husband).

Incidentally, a few weeks later a couple in our family got divorced. I wonder if some of the ideas in this book may have helped my daughter when she realized she would not see her aunt much anymore.

It has been a month since Grandma died, and my daughter has told me more than once that when she is a mommy and someone dies, she will read "I Wish I could Hold your Hand" to her children.

Diane O'Quinn Burke's gentle duotone illustrations perfectly underscore Pat Palmer's deftly written and gentle "I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand...": A Child's Guide To Grief And Loss. Based upon sound psychology with respect to the grieving process in children, this sensitive and exceptional well written story will significantly assist a young child to identify their feeling arising from their grief including denial, anger, guilt, and sadness. The child will discover within the pages of this brief but superbly presented story that it is normal and natural to feel the pain of loss created by a friend or loved one moving away or dying -- and that they can and will come to accept the change in their life and eventually feel better.

Reviewer's Book: Overcoming Loss: Activities and Stories for Children Who Have Experienced Grief and Loss

This wonderful fictional story follows a young girl in the process of grief and loss. The illustrations are wonderful and it gently explores the wide range of emotions associated with the loss of a loved one.