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