Six books for the parent who has to explain death to a three- or four- or five-year-old and doesn't know how to start the sentence. You're not meant to read them all — you need one. Pick it by how old your child is, by whether they want facts or want holding, and above all by what your family says happens next. That last one decides more than anything else here, so it's counted out book by book below before you spend a penny.
The fastest way in is three questions. How old? Three or four is 'Lifetimes' or 'The Goodbye Book' — sixty words, no plot, nothing to follow. Five and up can take 'When Dinosaurs Die', which is the fullest and busiest of them. What does your child actually want? Some want facts. What does dead mean, is he cold, can he hear us, will you die too. Those children want 'When Dinosaurs Die' or 'Lifetimes' — plain, square, no story. Some don't want facts at all, they want to be told that the way they feel is allowed. Those children want 'The Goodbye Book' or 'The Invisible String'. And a child who has gone silent on you often opens up for 'I Miss You', because it asks them things instead of telling them. What does your family say happens next? This is the one that matters most and the one a bookshop will never ask you. It's counted out in the heads-up below. Read that part before you order anything. One more thing worth knowing up front: two of these six never say that anyone died. 'The Goodbye Book' and 'The Invisible String' are about the feeling, not the fact. They're on the shelf because that feeling is real and someone needs a book for it — but if you came here for a book that says the word, those two aren't it, and each says so in its own note.