Reading as Grief Therapy for Children: Fiction to Help Older Children Deal with Divorce

Monday, March 9, 2020


Although death is the ultimate loss, is isn’t the only one that affects children. Today’s blog post will list fiction for older children in which the main characters are dealing with their parents’ divorces.

As with the books on death in the last two posts, I have read each one myself and have left off several that I did not think would be helpful. Unfortunately, none of these works well for boys. But here is my list of recommended books for girls.

·       Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd) by Julie Bowe—A nine-year-old girl tries to keep her parents’ divorce a secret from her friends but discovers that honesty is a better choice.

·       The Twelve Dares of Christa by Marissa Burt—For the first time in her life, Christa must spend Christmas away from her father after her parents separate.

·       One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia—In this classic novel taking place in 1968, Delphine’s parents have already been apart for seven years, and she and her younger sisters are used to living with their conventional father and conservative grandmother. When they are sent to spend the summer with their mother, Delphine must learn to live with the unconventional woman she barely remembers and doesn’t respect.

·       Two Naomis by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich—This is a contemporary story about two unrelated girls with divorced parents. When one Naomi’s father begins dating the other Naomi’s mother, both girls must learn to accept new people into an expanded family.

·       It’s Not the End of the World by Judy Blume—When Karen’s parents announce that they are getting divorced, she tries to find ways to keep them together. This book was published in 1972 and is dated, but it shows how divorce affects everyone in the family, which hasn’t changed.

Next week I’ll talk about a helpful resource for parents.

No comments:

Post a Comment