The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children

I really liked the simplicity of this book. It was a quick easy read with no religion in it at all. It was very matter of fact and detailed how different living things have different life spans. I bought this for my almost 5 year old daughter who had started asking about death. There is a section that talks about accidents and illness as a cause of death with a picture of a butterfly wing all broken in pieces. It kind of freaked her out. Also, the book was written in the 1980's so it says people live to 60 or 70 which outdated.

This book would be effective for grief therapy and for teaching about life cycles. It specifically answers the question: What is a lifetime?
My daughter, age 4, had a lot of questions about death. She was most especially interested in finding out when her "dying day" would be. This book seemed to help her understand that everyone's lifetime is special to them. I wanted her to understand that because someone else died it doesn't mean her death is imminent. A common fear among the young.
An exquisitely illustrated and plainly written book, it speaks clearly to the children about a complicated subject. I highly recommend it for all home and school libraries for ages three and up. It should be used as part of a comprehensive set of books on biological and familial concepts as it is not meant to answer all of a child's questions on life cycles, grief, death or dying.

I love using this book for the text. The pictures are evocative as well. It is not specific to any one religion and helps explain how small injuries can heal. This is reassuring for children worried others in their life may die as well.

Excellent opening to talk to kids about death and life. The only criticism is that they said the human lifespan is too young!!! People are living longer these days AND it can scare kids whose healthy and active grandparents are in their upper sixties!!!

This book simply explains the process of living and dying, by giving examples of the lifecycle of certain animals and how they eventually die. It could have had alittle more emotion, because there is always emotion connected to losing a loved one. Even children feel that emotion or loss.

Excellent service from distributor. Excellent book for children and educators - need more like it!
Recommend this book to anyone who desires children (and adults) not fear the natural cycle of living and dying.

Life and the end of life are beautifully and simply explained. Graphics are well chosen. Anyone having to explain the life process to children would find this book useful, whether parents or counselors.

After all the great reviews it seemed like this would be a good book for my 8-year old who is concerned about death. However, this book is so simple and repetitive that it is appropriate for small children, not 5-8 as recommended. The pages are mostly photos with just a few sentences. The point they are getting across is that your lifetime is the time from when you are born to the time you die, but there is nothing positive in regards to your lifetime. It's just there, just like death. Disappointed but would probably good for 3-5 year olds.

thought well written, good "cycle of life" descriptions of things that children know about and can understand. Got for 2.5 yr old daughter who has lost 3 grand parents in the last year. Not sure she totally understands yet, but I think this is helping her to understand the cycle of life.

The concept of comparatively explaining the lifespan of different creatures is good, but the book is horrible. My kid has been fixated on death, but I could not bring myself to read this to him because I think it would make him worry even more, especially since it says people only live 60 years. The illustrations are not bad.