The Heart and the Bottle
By Oliver Jeffers, Harper Collins Children’s Books, 2010
This is a profound book, but so simple. The pictures tell the story as much as the words, so you need them to allow you to work out the details. It’s about a girl who was full of wonder and curiosity. Then she is confronted with an empty chair and it is implied that her grandad has died. After that, she takes her heart and puts it safely in a bottle. She thinks she has fixed things but in reality she has lost her joy in life. The girl notices how heavy and awkward the bottle has become, but is glad her heart is safe.
One day she meets another character. I will not spoil all the plot, but though she now wants her heart back, she cannot get it. There is a happy ending. Children are likely to be fascinated by the anatomically correct heart. In my view, it adds to the book’s depth as it covers far more serious a topic than a valentine’s card!
No Longer Alone
By Author and Illustrator, Publisher, Year
by Joseph Coelho, Farshore at Harper Collins, 2019
A girl doesn’t want to talk in front of other people who mistakenly think she’s shy. However, when she is alone, we learn that she talks of darkness, tears, loneliness, and fears. Her dad wants her to go back to how she was before. However, she explains that that was the old her before she was sad and before they were alone.
The message seems to be that she needs to talk and be heard. She tells her dad what upsets her and makes her feel alone and he listens deeply. Then she feels able to begin talking again in her daily life. In the last picture the reader can work out that her Mum has died or has left because there are a lot of photos of the same woman posing with the current family when they were a bit younger.
The Hole
Lindsay Bonilla, Puffin, part of Penguin at Random House, 2025
This is a book about grief after a child’s brother has died. However, it would apply to any kind of loss. Loss is represented throughout as a hole, drawn in black scribble. For example, a black hole is drawn like this on the bottom bunk where the brother used to sleep.
The child perceives holes in a similar way all round the house, as well as inside her and her parents’ chests. The social impact of bereavement is part of the book too. She speaks of isolation saying the hole follows her everywhere. At school, some of the children don’t see it and others ignore it. However, some say they have a hole too.
The girl is nervous but confronts her loss. She puts a foot into the hole and falls down, down, down. The description is powerful. At the bottom of the hole it is hard and cold. Here she shouts out her anger and throws dirt at the wall. Finally, she is exhausted. She sits in the silence and while she doesn’t feel good, she does feel a bit better. She remembers lots of fun things about her brother and finds she doesn’t hate the hole anymore because she fills it with memories.
The message seems to suggest not to run away from grief and to remember to celebrate good times. It implies that just because there is a loss, it doesn’t mean there weren’t happy times or that there cannot be again.
Mum’s Jumper
By Jayde Perkin, Book Island, 2019
This is a book about grief. The little girl's mother dies in hospital. People bring cards and flowers and there is a funeral. A dark space begins to follow the girl around and she finds it hard to concentrate. The book explains how grief affects her physically. The sounds and voices around her become distant and floaty. There is an illustration of her floating in water. The text explains her body aches as if she'd been swimming for days. She wonders how she can get to the shore. It puzzles her that she feels so alone when everybody is kind. The book mentions feelings such as anger. The honesty would be helpful to readers, for example, sometimes she even feels angry that her friends have Mum's to fetch them from school.
At home, they have to sort through the mother’s possessions and the girl finds her mum’s favourite jumper. Even though it initially smells of her Mum, in the end, it begins to smell of the girl instead and then it goes in the wash. The jumper becomes a powerful image.
We see the girl sitting under a huge, dark cloud. Her dad explains that grief doesn't necessarily get better over time. It's like a jumper. The jumper stays the same size, but eventually she grows into it. There is an illustration of her watering flowers which helps with the message. The book explains that the grief may stay the same size but her world will grow bigger around it. She will grow too. She doesn't need to wear the jumper every day, but she likes to know it's there.
The Garden of Hope
By Isabel Otter, illustrated by Katie Rewse, Little Tiger Press Group (Catterpillar Books imprint) 2018
A little girl‘s mother has died. The dad explains that, in life, when her mother was upset she often planted some seeds. The mother did so because she knew that by the time they bloomed she would be over the worry. Now, the little girl plants seeds in the garden and makes a wish with the first seed. Thinking about the garden helps her grief. In this lovely book, plants bloom and attract bees and butterflies. Next birds come, then hedgehogs, then rabbits and squirrels. Most of all the garden brings hope.