Where Do People Go When They Die?

I initially bought this when my young sister-in-law died and I had to explain it to my 3 year old. It was so phenomenal that I loaned it out to friends who lost family to help their children deal with their grief. Now that my father is terminally ill, I have had to buy it a second time because I know that my now five year old and her three year old sister need it desperately to help them. I am also planning to buy copies of it for the local hospitals for kids visiting loved ones and kids who are ill. A fantastic book.

I first looked at this book while my mother was terminally ill. I thought it was thoughtfully written, but too open-ended for my family; we believe in a specific sort of afterlife, and I thought this book might water down what we have already taught our children about what happens after death. However, after my mother died, I found myself recalling this book, and simple as it was, it still had something to teach this adult. I remembered the various answers the narrator receives to his question, and the truth of each one hit me at various times while I was first grieving. Just the memory of this picture book comforted me. I look forward to sharing this book, with its soothing (but not boring) illustrations, with my 4-year-old and my 10-year-old. (The 10-year-old is older than the target audience, but if Mom can learn from it, he can too.)

This was just the book we needed when my sister died. It helped us explain it to our young children (ages 3 and 5).