By Patrice Karst
Zack's dog Jojo has died, and he wants no part of anyone's comfort, until his friend Emily, whose cat died too, tells him about the Invisible Leash.
Zack's dog Jojo has died, and Zack is angry about it. He doesn't want to hear that Jojo is in a better place, and he doesn't want to hear that he'll feel better someday. For a good stretch of the book he's just miserable, and nobody rushes him out of it. Then his friend Emily turns up. Her cat died too, and she tells him about the Invisible Leash: a leash made of love that runs from his heart to Jojo's and stretches all the way to wherever Jojo has gone. He can't see it, but he's still holding his end. Zack doesn't buy it. He wants the actual dog back. Then he closes his eyes and feels the tug, and the pages fill with see-through pets bounding along beside their children on bright leashes. Patrice Karst wrote 'The Invisible String' about a parent and child apart for a day; this is that same comfort turned toward a pet who has died and isn't coming home.
The leash is something your child can actually do, not just a story they hear once and close. Eyes shut, feel the tug: it's a thing they can reach for on their own, including at three in the morning when the missing is worst and you're asleep down the hall. The book also lets Zack stay angry for a long stretch before anyone tries to fix him, so a child who's been snapping at everyone for days may see their own fury treated as ordinary instead of a problem. And it's Emily, another child, who does the explaining, which sometimes reaches a grieving child differently than the same words from a grown-up.