Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children

For some reason, my son turned 4 and he began asking about death and dying regularly. I struggled with how to approach this and wanted to be matter of fact on one hand and also incorporate our faith on the other... I purchased two books, this is one of them. I’m a licensed therapist and found this book really straight forward and appropriate for even young children. It goes through lifespans in a very simple, matter of fact way. My son seemed to understand and it helped take some of the irrational fears from death and dying and aging and sickness and replace them with rational thoughts, as much as that seems impossible with a 4 year old. It came around the time one of our fish became sick and it honestly really helped him understand. When I told him his pet died he said, “ aw that’s ok mom, fish have a shorter lifespan than humans.” Happy I made this purchase and would recommend it. Not at all faith based (purchased a second book to incorporate that) but it certainly served a positive purpose for our family.

We read this story in my Montessori Primary classroom, as needed. This is truly a wonderfully appropriate book for children processing death. It explains there is a beginning, an ending, and living in between. It connects nature, animals, plants, and people and illustrates that each have their own lifetimes.
It is an appropriate gift for families dealing with a loss. It’s a fantastic addition to a classroom library. Highly Recommend!!

This book truly is a beautiful way to explain death to children! Our six year old has been making comments about people in her life dying at some point. I sought out this book in the hopes that it would help ease her mind that death truly is part of life and it did! She seems much less stressed about the idea of mom or dad dying anytime soon. I highly recommend it for anybody looking for the words to explain this often difficult topic.

I love how simple the explanation is. There isn't any references to the spiritual side of death which I like and there isn't any graphics. The butterfly is the worst graphic imo.