What Happens When a Loved One Dies?: Our First Talk About Death

Whether children are experiencing grief and loss for the first time or simply curious, it can be difficult to know how to talk to them about death.

Using questions posed in a child’s voice and answers that start simply and become more in-depth, this book allows adults to guide the conversation to a natural and reassuring conclusion. Additional questions at the back of the book allow for further discussion.

Child psychologist Dr. Jillian Roberts designed the Just Enough series to empower parents/caregivers to start conversations with young ones about difficult or challenging subject matter. Other books in the series deal with birth, diversity, separation and divorce.

Dr. Jillian Roberts is a child psychologist, bestselling author and research professor at the University of Victoria. For more than 30 years, she has worked with children and families and has become a trusted voice on child development, mental health and resilience for parents, educators and the media. She is the author of numerous books for children and families, including the bestselling and award-winning Just Enough and The World Around Us series. Her book Why Do Families Change?, part of the Just Enough series, was featured on Oprah Daily in the “Therapist-Approved Divorce Books for Kids” list. She also writes a monthly mental health column for The Globe and Mail. Dr. Roberts divides her time between Victoria and the North Shore of Prince Edward Island.

Cindy Revell’s illustrations have been used on billboards and wine bottles, and in magazines and numerous children’s books all over North America. She has worked with clients like Disney, Penguin Putnam, the L.A. Times and Scholastic. Her illustration of Mallory and the Power Boy (Annick Press) was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s book illustration. She lives in Edmonton.