Books About Donation, Transplant, or Helping Children Cope with Loss
This grouping is not an official list supported by CDT or the Department of Health & Human Services. All of these books have not been read by CDT staff. It is a compiling of suggested readings by others in the donation community. We hope you find them helpful.
For Children
The Giving Tree...............................................................Silverstein, Shel
Learning to Say Goodbye: When a Parent Dies.................................LeShan, Eda
The Mulberry Music: Death of a Grandparent...................................Orgel, Doris
Rachel & The Upside Down Heart.............................................Douglas, Eileen
Sarah’s Journey: One Child’s Experience with Death of Her Father........Wolfelt, Alan
When Mommy Died: A Child’s View of Death............................Hammond, Janice
Why Did Daddy Die............................................................Alderman, Linda
Donor Banks: Saving Lives with Organ & Tissue Transplants...................Lee, Sally
Spare Parts for People......................................................Facklam, Margery
How Will They Get That Heart Down Your Throat?..........................Walton, Karen
Precious Gifts, Katie Coolican’s Story: Barkley &
Eve Explain Organ Donation.................................................Carney, Karen L.
Justin’s Journey: My Life as a Kid with Kidney Disease.........................Hill, Justin
*Lizzy Gets a New Liver...........................................................Ribal, Lizzy
*Red’s True Heart.....................................................Freeman, J.A. & Mary
When Daddy Got Sick: A Story About Organ Transplantation.........McCreight, Shawn
When Someone Very Special Dies.........................................Heegaard, Marge
A New Heart for Hannah........................................................Flynn, Jessie
Transplants................................................................Beckelman, Laurie
There’s a Little Bit of Me in Jamey.........................................Amadeo, Diana
The Fall of Freddy the Leaf...................................................Buscaglia, Leo
Series by Tony Huesman, Huesman Heart Foundation:
- Cardiac Kids
- There Are Some Things More Important Than Baseball
- His Only Hope
- Heart Smart
* Bilingual: English and Spanish in one book
For Teenagers and Adults
For Those Who Live.............................................................La Tour, Kathy
The Grieving Child: A Parent’s Guide......................................Fitsgerald, Helen
Helping Children Cope With Grief...............................................Wolfelt, Alan
How Do We Tell the Children..................................................Schaaefer, Dan
How it Feels When A Parent Dies..............................................Krementz, Jill
Our, Hero, Freebird, An Organ Donor’s Story
................................(8th grade students in Joy McCaleb’s reading class of 1997)
Eva..............................................................................Dickinson, Peter
Saving Jessica...............................................................McDaniels, Lurlene
She Died Too Young.........................................................McDaniels, Lurlene
Someone Dies, Someone Lives............................................McDaniels, Lurlene
Somewhere Between Life and Death......................................McDaniels, Lurlene
The Nicholas Effect: A Boy’s Gift to the World...................................Green, Reg
A Gift of Life: A Page from the Life of a Living Organ Donor..........Chabot-Long, Lynn
For Those Who Give and Grieve: A Book for Donor Families............................NKF
Hope From My Heart...............................................................De Vos, Rich
It Gets Dark Sometimes: My Sister’s Fight to Live and Save Lives.........Marx, Jeffrey
LifeLine, How One Night Changed Five Lives,
A True Story.......................................................Schomaker, Many Zimmeth
Organ Transplants: Making the Most of Your Gift of Life.....................Finn, Robert
Second Chances: Receiving the Gift of Life...................................Lueders, Jeff
Loss of a Sibling
Am I Still a Sister?...............................................................Sims, Alicia A.
Losing Someone You Love: When a Brother or Sister Dies.............Richter, Elizabeth
Recovering From the Loss of a Sibling..................................Donnelly, Katharine
Where’s Jess?.....................................................................Johnson, Joy
Books of Religious/Spiritual Nature
Death with Understanding.......................................Religious Research Writers
Living with Loss: A Parent’s Memoir............................................Veal, Ernest
Roses in December: Comfort for the Grieving Heart.....................Heavlin, Marilyn
Roses in December: Finding Strength Within Grief.......................Heavlin, Marilyn
When Bad Things Happen to Good People................................Kushner, Harold S.
Glimpses of God – A Mother Chronicles Her Daughter’s Death
and Her Own Personal Grief...................................................Peele, Michelle
