A Picture Book about Grief
“Louise thought about Charlie. How he loved the water. How he loved the breeze on his face. How he loved to explore the island.”
I can still hear all the adults telling me, “Don’t be sad,” when I was little and suffering a loss. I needed to know it was okay to be sad. Kids need to know it’s ok to grieve. And they need to know that for each person, grief has its own expression, its own trajectory, and its own timetable.
Matthew Cordell’s beautiful picture book BEAR ISLAND tells the truth about grief. When young Louise loses her beloved dog Charlie, she experiences anger, loneliness, wonder, and, of course, sadness. In her journey, she meets a friend, a bear friend, who seems to be on his own grief journey. He is on his own timetable with his sadness—and he seems to show her that her grief journey is normal—and that she isn’t alone. He shows her that having a moment of beauty and goodness can happen in between moments of grief—and how grief comes and goes.