Loss and Grief
Are you a parent or guardian looking for books related to your child’s interests, or recommendations to help them branch out into new genres? Are you a teacher looking for books on a particular theme or topic? Look no further than our themed reading lists for a huge variety of brilliant book recommendations for children of all ages.
Bereavement is a challenging experience that affects all children, with many encountering their first experiences of loss through the death of a pet or a beloved grandparent. The emotions surrounding grief are the same for everyone, regardless of age and exploring feelings around loss through a book can often leave young readers feeling less alone in their experiences.
The Loss and Grief recommended reading list is a guide to stories that focus on the topic of bereavement. Selected in the hopes of providing comfort and support, the titles included here encompass several different types of losses, from family to friends to pets. While aimed at children and young people, we hope that reading these stories will help readers of every age to process the complex emotions that can follow the loss of someone important in their lives.
This is a curated list of 24 titles aimed at readers from the age of 5 up to young adults as selected by our Publications Manager and with the assistance of our reviewers under the assigned theme. It is by no means an exhaustive list and we have tried, where possible, to include a spread of genres under this theme.
Our policy is to include titles dating from five years to date in English and ten years to date in the Irish language. Any titles by an Irish author, illustrator, publisher or in the Irish language will be denoted with a shamrock.
With this reading list, we are proud to support the work of The Irish Childhood Bereavement Network and raise awareness during Bereaved Children's Awareness Week 17–23 November 2025.
