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Children’s Books- Difficult Topics
30
items Life can get really hard and change very fast. There are very difficult topics (grief, divorce,bullying, etc) in which finding the correct words to share with your child can be challenging. Use these picture books to help guide the conversation and t...
Sections
3
Grief
Divorce
🏠 Housing Insecurities
Grief
Grief is hard. Use these childrens picture books to help guide you in the conversation and to help your child process, grieve, and heal. From losses of mothers, unborn siblings, pets, and more.
This book targets the loss of a mother. After a young girl's mother dies, Empty appears and silently takes up the big blank space left behind. For some time, the girl can't connect with her dad or any friends, and Empty is her closest companion.
Empty and Me: A Tale of Friendship and Loss|Hardcover
This book targets the loss of a father. In this moving, hope-filled picture book about loss, love, and family, a little girl grieving the death of her father discovers that she can take the loved ones she’s lost with her on all her future journeys.
The Dreams We Made|Hardcover
Remembering the loss of a sibling. Ethan. Ethan. Ethan. Sarah misses her adored big brother with all her heart. She wants to celebrate all the fun times she and her parents spent with him. But ever since Ethan died, Mommy and Daddy won’t mention him....
Remembering Ethan|Hardcover
Abuela’s Letter is a beautiful story that addresses loss and grief within a Latin family where a young girl is challenged by the death of her grandmother and discovers letter-writing as a way to cope and connect with her loved one's passing.
Abuela's Letter|Hardcover
Losing a pet is hard, but this picture book told through a Day of the Dead celebration will show readers that the love they have for their beloved companion will always remain.
An Ofrenda for Perro|Hardcover
Life is full of sunshine for inseparable friends Violet and Mia. Until one day, Violet leaves school sick and doesn't get better. Without her best friend, Mia slips into a gloomy existence. As she moves through the stages of grief like the colors of ...
Missing Violet|Hardcover
The loss of an unborn baby/miscarriage. Written as a letter to his unborn baby sibling, Dear Star Baby shares how a little boy processes the grief he and his family experience after a miscarriage.
Dear Star Baby|Hardcover
A picture book geared to help parents and counselors communicate with young children about a parent’s suicide.
Oliver’s daddy loved him—a whole bunch, forever and for always. One day Oliver’s daddy died by suicide. Why? Oliver’s mommy hugs him tight...
Why?: A Story for Kids Who Have Lost a Parent to Suicide|Hardcover
A picture book to help children understand the loss of a loved one to drug overdose.
Often, children who lose a loved one to overdose are not truthfully told what happened to the person who died, because of the stigma associated with this type of de...
All the Pieces: When a Loved One Dies From Substance Use|Hardcover
An imaginative and heartfelt book that reminds us that there is no loss without love.
When Grief first arrives, it is like an elephant—so big that there is hardly room for anything else. But over time, Grief can become smaller and smaller—first a de...
Grief Is an Elephant|Hardcover
A tender and deeply moving picture book about loss and the big questions it leaves behind.
A Garden of Creatures|Hardcover
This lyrical picture book is a beautiful, heart-opening ode to loved ones we’ve lost and a reminder that their love will carry on with us forever. Filled with stunning illustrations and uplifting text, this is an inspiring story for children and adul...
See You on the Other Side|Hardcover
This gentle and affirming story encourages readers to remember a loved one in small and meaningful ways through their own life experiences.
You'll Be There|Hardcover
Divorce
Change is hard and divorce of parents is even harder. Use these children's books to help your child process and heal from the change.
Kids are told, "it's for the best"—and one day, it may be. But right now, divorce is the worst. With honesty and humor, Anastasia Higginbotham beautifully conveys the challenge of staying whole when your entire world, and the people in it, split apar...
Divorce Is the Worst|Hardcover
When a little girl learns about her parents’ divorce on a Thursday, it ruins her favorite day of the week. But her stuffed-unicorn friend steps in to help, taking her on adventures to cheer her up and staying by her side to comfort her when feelings ...
Thursday|Hardcover
A poignant picture book about a young girl, who in the face of her parents' divorce, turns to the one constant in her life-her dog Fred.
Fred Stays With Me!|Paperback
A charming look at the many forms a happy family can take—whether she's with Mommy at her house, or with Daddy and his partner Harry at their apartment, this little girl always knows she's loved.
Tuesday Is Daddy's Day|Paperback
When parents break up, a child may wonder if things will ever be the same. This tender, moving story explores the emotions children may feel through this difficult transition.
Everything Changes - Clare Helen Welsh
This book helps children understand the divorce of same-sex parents and how a child’s living situation may change.
Once upon a time, Grayson’s life was like a fairy tale. He lived in a big brick house with Papa and Daddy. They had chocolate chip pa...
Once Upon My Dads' Divorce|Hardcover
A young boy named Alex enjoys the homes of both of his parents who live apart but love Alex very much, in a comforting story about the reality of divorce.
Two Homes|Hardcover
Separation and divorce are difficult on the entire family.
Often young children blame themselves or are unsure of their place in the family if these events occur.
Why Do Families Change?: Our First Talk About Separation and Divorce|Paperback
🏠 Housing Insecurities
Use these children books to help guide the conversation of housing insecurities. From understanding homelessness, to living with extended family, to teaching your child compassion through these books can help you!
I See You is a wordless picture book that depicts a homeless woman who is not seen by everyone around her — except for a little boy.
Over the course of a year, the boy is witness to all that she endures. Ultimately, in a gesture of compassion, the bo...
I See You: A Story for Kids About Homelessness and Being Unhoused|Hardcover
A thought-provoking story that encourages us all to sit up and take notice.
Nobody notices the unhoused woman on the corner. Nobody, that is . . . except one young girl. Through her eyes, the woman who dwells in the abandoned plot is a warrior queen,...
The Queen on Our Corner|Hardcover
This endearing picture book about making the most of any situation is also a heartfelt and meaningful portrait of houselessness that’s just right for young children.
The Bright Side|Hardcover
In this touching and whimsical picture book about a mother and child’s last trip to their local laundromat before moving away.
The Wishing Machine|Hardcover
Such a touching story! During Chinese New Year, a young boy encounters a homeless person and discovers that no gift is too small when it comes from the heart.
Sam and the Lucky Money|Paperback
Vera Williams tells of a young girl who, along with her waitress mother, saves coins in a big jar in hopes that they can someday buy a new chair for their apartment, the kind of chair her mother deserves after being on her feet all day in the Blue Ti...
A Chair for My Mother|Hardcover
This amazing book is available in English & Spanish. A heartwarming picture book with Spanish words woven in, about a father helping his daughter adjust when they temporarily have to move in with extended family.
Only for a Little While|Hardcover
Before Kip Tiernan came along, the US had no shelters for women. Here is the inspirational story of a singular woman and what her vision and compassion have brought to life.
Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie's Place, the Nation's First Shelter for Women|Hardcover
This is the wonderful story of a friend who is lost and found and lost and found again, and of a little boy who begins to understand the meaning of compassion.
The Teddy Bear|Paperback