I should have known how to answer her questions.

How to help her understand.

After all, I had spent years of schooling studying how to help other children cope with grief, loss, death, but yet here I was feeling helpless in helping my own child.

Within a year my sweet, vibrant, three-year-old would suddenly lose her beloved pup, on Christmas Eve nonetheless, and a few months later her Papa. The Papa who she spent most days with while mom and dad were at work. Adding to it all, she was my buddy at weekly, multiple doctors, and hospital visits to make sure that her baby sis was developing ok, that she was still alive. Appointments that we often went to early in the morning before I had to head off to work. I was going through a high-risk pregnancy and though she did not know it at the time, I was hoping on everything I would not have to explain to her the loss of her little sister too (we are so very fortunate we did not have to).

Having always turned to books for education, peace, and an escape, I began to search for books to help P understand and cope with death. Unfortunately, it was not easy and I could not believe how hard it was to find some suitable for young kids especially.

Was I crazy for wanting to talk to my child about this topic?

Was it ok to do?

Everything I had learned studying to become a child and adolescent therapist said it was. Yet even throughout my schooling, I began to realize I had never really come across a resource such as books that would discuss the topics in a way for young children to learn and engage with.

And then one day I found them.

A Kids Book About.

A whole community with books, so many books about difficult topics, inspiring topics, topics we needed to talk to our children about. Topics our children wanted and needed us to talk to them about.

From the authors to the developers and creators who are also authors behind the company, (the founder of the company, Jelani Memory, who wrote A Kids Book About Racism), they were all people who believed in and were doing just what I needed, what my kids needed and what so many of us need. They were creating and making available books that never existed before. Books that would help parents have those difficult conversations. Allow us to learn, connect, and even comfort our children (and ourselves), all with a tool that we had turned to for this type of support before; books.

When we share our favorite books with all of you I often refer to “building your library”. These books are a must for any library. With so many titles to choose from there are resources to challenge, empower, and discuss important topics with our children and amongst ourselves. Some of our favorite titles have included A Kids Book About Bullying, Racism, Feminism, Anxiety, Gratitude, and Death. None of these books have let me down and therefore I really recommend them all.

As parents life will throw many challenges and obstacles our way. We will not ever know it all or even be prepared for what may come next. I would have never guessed that at three years old P would have experienced what she did so quickly. What I did know is she needed my husband and me more than ever to help her understand, to help her process, and to have conversations with her that were not always easy. A Kids Book About helped us with all of that and so much more.

We hope you enjoy these books just as much as we do and I know they have a book for everyone, or two, or three, or four…

We hope you enjoy these books just as much as we do. As Storytellers with AKBA we may earn a small commission through purchasing books linked on this page at no extra cost to you. So thank you for the support so we can continue to provide awesome book recommendations!