Books for grieving teens

Friend loss

Grandparent loss

Most of the links from the book titles below will lead you to Amazon.com, where you can learn more about the book, read reviews about it, and order it if you’d like. Most of these books can be purchased through other book sellers, as well, or found at your local library.

General

Fire In My Heart, Ice In My Veins
by Enid Traisman, 2006.
A journal for teenagers. Teens can write letters, copy down meaningful lyrics, write songs and poems, tell the person who died what they want them to know, finish business and use their creativity to work through the grieving process.

The Grieving Teen: A Guide for Teenagers and Their Friends
by Helen Fitzgerald; Fireside, 2000

Healing Your Grieving Heart for Teens
by Alan D. Wolfelt, Phd; Companion Press, 2001

Helping Teens Cope with Death
The Dougy Center; Dougy Center, 1999

Helping Teens Work Through Grief
by Mary Kelly Perschy; Accelerated Development, 1999
Aimed at adults to assist teens

If Only
by Carole Geithner

Life Happens: A Teenagers Guide to Friends, Failure, Sexuality, Love, Rejection, Addiction, Peer Pressure, Families, Loss, Depression and Change (non-fiction)
Kathy McCoy, Charles Wibbelsman; Berkley Publishing Group, 1996
Includes the death of a family member, symptoms of depression and what to expect from a mental health provider in addition to other teenage issues.

Saying Goodbye When You Don't Want To
by Martha Bolton, Vine Books
March 2002

Straight Talk About Death for Teenagers
by Earl Grollman;
Beacon Press, 1993

The Tiger Rising
by Kate Dicamillo

Friend

Bridge to Terabithia fiction, teaching guides available.
by Katherine Peterson; Harper Trophy, 1987
Accidental death of friend

When a Friend Dies, A Book for Teens About Grieving and Healing
by Marilyn E. Grootman;
Free Spirit Press, 1994
nonfiction

Grandparent

Toning the Sweep fiction 
by Angela Johnson; Scholastic Paperbacks, 1994  
Coretta Scott King award winner 
African American story of visits to a grandmother dying of cancer

First Published: 11/02/1998
Last Reviewed: 08/01/2018