Walking Grandma Home

This is such a sweet story to teach kids about loss and grief. I cried reading it. Highly recommend this book. 5 stars.

Walking Grandma Home is a very sweet book about dealing with the death of a grandparent. This would be perfect for any child with an ill relative close to dying. It handles the story with care and compassion.

I loved the way this book emphasised the importance of mutual support, love and honesty at a time of grief. It is expressed from the viewpoint of a child whose beloved grandmother is dying and who is confused by expressions used ‘grandma is going home’ and scared of losing someone he loves very much. It is very moving and is a useful starting point to help a grieving child start to talk about their feelings in such a situation. There is an extremely useful last page which gives ideas for further helping a child deal with grief and what to expect from them. Whilst this book uses American expressions which may need some explaining to children from other countries, (for example, I had never heard to the expression that someone is going home when dying, and a cockerel is called a rooster etc) the principles involved as regards emotions; family support and communication; the comfort brought by memories and reminiscing about someone together are universal. An excellent book with simple, understandable illustrations to help in difficult circumstances.

Facing death leads to many emotions for anyone. Young and old. This book is sensitive to those emotions. It does not deny the emotions but as a Christian and having a hope, families can come together when facing death. I think that is what I liked the most about this story.

A young girl is experiencing the decline of her grandmother. Her grandmother knows that she is in decline and is helping her family thru this. I think this is so important because as Christ teaches, when we suffer together, it brings the gospel to us and to experience it together is like no other. When we deny that, it hurts our relationship with God and others. We have the promises of God when we face death for those that we leave behind and for those that are going home! Highly recommend.

A special thank you to Zonderkidz and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

This book is so beautifully done! I do wish they'd gone with maybe rhyming or something just so it flowed a little better. It just felt slightly choppy when reading it aloud but the story is beautiful! It takes you on a journey with a child dealing with his grandmother's death. You get to see his relationship with her and the connection they have. I was crying by the end. The uncle explains what's happening and that they're helping Grandma walk home to heaven. It's so touching and heartfelt you can't help but cry yourself! This is a wonderful way to help children understand and deal with trauma and death at a young age. I fully plan to purchase a copy for myself to read with my kids as my grandparents are 99 and 93. Lovely, soft-colored pictures add to the calm and reassuring feeling this book brings. The back of the book has ideas on how to help a child dealing with this and gives great ideas for activities and prompts to keep the conversation going. I highly recommend this book!