On Día de los Muertos, a family prepares an ofrenda for their favorite furry family member, remembering all the ways that their beloved pet brought love and comfort to their lives.
Grief
The Remembering Stone
Alice keeps a perfectly round skipping stone in her pocket to remember her grandfather by but the stone goes missing. It looked just like a regular stone, but Alice knew it was different: It was perfectly round so you could use it to trace circles, and sometimes she could trick her dad into thinking it was a quarter. It was also how Alice remembered her grandpa, who taught her how to skip stones, and who passed away last winter.
Alice brings the stone to school for Show and Share, but when her classmate asks to see it again at recess, Alice discovers that the stone is gone! Her friends search high and low and can’t find the stone but their friendship gives Alice an idea of another way that she can remember. A gentle look at loss, grief and how small everyday actions can connect us to those we love.
This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.
The Thing At 52
There’s a Thing on my street. He lives at number 52. I see him sitting in his front yard when I walk to school. He was big and lumbering and a wore a tiny top hat perched on top of his rather large head. She didn’t think he had any friends, so she brought him a flower. It wasn’t long before their friendship bloomed. The Thing was gentle and kind and the adventures they went on were the best she could ever imagine. The girl soon discovered that there were many Things, living all over the place, which gave her an idea. She invited them all to a party, and the Things danced till midnight. Thing had never felt so happy. But one day the Thing had to go and their adventures came to an end. All Things have to go sometime.
Farolitos For Abuelo
When Luz’s beloved grandfather dies, she places luminaria around his grave on Christmas Eve as a way of remembering him.
Rainbows In December
Kimi’s grandma helps her navigate one of life’s hardest experiences, the death of a loved one. When Kimi is faced with confusing emotions and questions, she receives her answers in different ways. These ways help her learn all about the natural process of life and death as well as help her feel a connection to her loved one.
When Impossible Happens
During the pandemic lockdown in India, almost nine year old Swara’s irrepressible spirit helps her come to terms with the death of her grandmother and solve a neighborhood mystery.
The Bird In Me Flies
What do you do when it feels impossible to live up to everything expected of you? When the only person who understands you disappears? When you are young and long for something that seems out of reach?Berta dreams of being an artist, but as a girl growing up in a small Swedish farming village in the 1920s, she has little hope. She finds solace in nature, and in drawing and shaping birds from clay for her mother, the only person who seems to truly understand her. When her mother succumbs to tuberculosis, Berta feels alone, in despair and even more burdened by all the work on the farm. Can she find the courage to defy her father and the social conventions of her time, and fly free?This beautifully illustrated novel in verse, inspired by the paintings, letters and diaries of Swedish artist Berta Hansson (1910-1994), is a universal story of grief, longing and following your dreams. Includes an afterword by journalist Alexandra Sundqvist.
Patron Saints Of Nothing
When seventeen-year-old Jay Reguero learns sis Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.
Paati’s Rasam
Malli loved weekends with her Paati. The head massages, the hugs, the engrossing stories, and most importantly, Paati’s delicious, piping-hot rasam. But then, one day, everything changed. And Malli’s world became dark and colourless. No more warm hugs, no more rasam, no more Paati. Can Malli find a piece of her beloved grandmother to hold on to?
Black Bird, Blue Road
In this historical fantasy novel, praised as a “rich, omen-filled journey that powerfully shows love and its limits*” and “propulsive, wise, and heartbreaking,”** Ziva will do anything to save her twin brother Pesah from his illness–even facing the Angel of Death himself. From Sydney Taylor Honor winner and National Jewish Book Award finalist Sofiya Pasternack. Pesah has lived with leprosy for years, and the twins have spent most of that time working on a cure. Then Pesah has a vision: The Angel of Death will come for him on Rosh Hashanah, just one month away. So Ziva takes her brother and runs away to find doctors who can cure him. But when they meet and accidentally free a half-demon boy, he suggests paying his debt by leading them to the fabled city of Luz, where no one ever dies–the one place Pesah will be safe. They just need to run faster than The Angel of Death can fly… (*Publishers Weekly, starred review; **Kirkus Reviews, starred review)