Picture Books About Death

We are coming to the end of our yearlong study of the Human Body in Science Club. I have been searching for a long time to find someone from SIU's Mortuary Science department to come in so that the children can ask their questions about death and dying, and finally found two! A 2nd year, Katy Bernard, and a 4th year (just weeks from graduation), Alexis Hamblin.

During the course of their two conversations with the children, I learned a lot. The children did too! The soon-to-be morticians were sweet and gentle.

I first became interested in "death positivity" when I attended a Zoom talk in 2022 that literally changed my life!

A Conversation with Caitlin Doughty



Wednesday, November 16 | 7PM | on Zoom

Join us for a conversation with Caitlin Doughty, mortician, bestselling author, and advocate for death acceptance. Hailed by The New York Times as "a relentlessly curious and chipper tour guide to the underworld,” she’ll discuss reform of Western funeral industry practices and much more with Mark Bazer (The Interview Show).

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, advocate, and bête noire of the traditional funeral industry. Her educational webseries "Ask a Mortician" has been viewed almost 250 million times and her three books were New York Times bestsellers - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, From Here to Eternity, and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? She founded a Los Angeles funeral home as well as the funeral reform collective The Order of the Good Death, which spawned the death positive movement.

I have quite a few picture books about Death, and one of Caitlin's books, but Katy also brought with her some more books that she recommended. Here I'm including the full list, in case you'd like to bulk up your collection at home. Death is also one of the Philosophy topics included in Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids by Marietta McCarty, and I read the class a short section from her book before we began the chats with Katy and Alexis.

Marietta writes,

On my last day with any group of child philosophers, each child has tucked into the bottom of a deep pocket the one question for which he or she would most like to have an answer. Regardless of age or locale, by far the most asked question involves the inevitability of death.

When will I die?

How?

Why can't we stop it?

What happens?

Does anything really die at all?

Why won't anybody talk with me about it?

The children were full of questions and glad to have someone to talk to them! The first question on Tuesday was, is it possible for someone to be accidentally buried while they are still alive? The first question on Wednesday was, can doctors can make someone who is dead come back?

Here are the books!

Picture books:

Mr. Red Ears by Phoebe Anderson



Blow Me a Kiss, Miss Lilly by Nancy White Carlstrom



Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper



Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs by Tomie dePaola



The Mountains of Tibet by Mordecai Gerstein



Cape by Kevin Johnson



I'll See You in My Dreams by Mavis Jukes



The Rough Patch by Brian Lies



Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved



The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant



Grandpa Green by Lane Smith



Badger's Parting Gifts by Susan Varley



If You Listen by Charlotte Zolotow

Chapter books (the last one is written for children):

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory
by Caitlin Doughty



From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
by Caitlin Doughty



Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

Caitlin Doughty's YouTube channel is Ask a Mortician.

Let me know if you have other books you recommend!

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