Grieving the loss of a loved one is an intensely personal process. Good Grief for Kids provides a creative way for children to express their feelings through writing and drawing - in a therapy journal created by Katherine Dorn Zotovich, a member of the San Luis Coastal Unified School District Teachers Association.
Zotovich decided to create a journal to help children cope with grief after one of her second-grade students asked her to help him find a book to prepare him for his mother's death. "I felt so helpless. I researched as many products as I could on grief and found very little available for young children," Zotovich recalls. "Within a few weeks of that experience, another second-grader in my class lost her toddler brother in a freak car accident while she was playing with him. Again, even though I held a counseling credential, I was dumbstruck as a teacher, not knowing what would be the appropriate thing to do."
The first section of the book is a resource for adults that can be removed, leaving the journal for the children. Each page has space for children to express their feelings through art.
The book costs $14.95. To order copies, write to Journal Keepers Publishing, P.O. Box 6173, Los Osos, CA 93412; call (805) 528-8722; or visit the Web site [www.journalkeepers.com].
CTA does not endorse or recommend the products reviewed in this section unless so indicated.