It's difficult to speak with a child about death. If they are on the Autism Spectrum, that introduces additional challenges. 'I Have a Question about Death: A Book for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Other Special Needs' by Arlen Grad Gaines and Meredith Englander Polsky seeks to help with that.

After a short preface about the subject, the book is divided into three sections. The first section is a complete story with basic pictures. The second section is a shortened version with mainly pictures for children who learn best with visual cues. The final section is suggestions for parents and caregivers.

The complete story seeks to answer the sort of questions that might come up after a death, like "what does it mean when a person dies?" or "Does it hurt to die." The book answers these questions in clear, fairly direct language (which is the advice given to parents). The things that can be expected are talked about. There may be a coffin or ashes. People may cry or laugh. If people come over, it might be noisy and they might try to hug, but it's ok to take a break. Things will get back to normal.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers continues to impress me with the types of things they publish. This book really impressed me with its openness and simple language about a subject that is unusual to children. The authors have experience with working with special needs children and one works in hospice care with this subject as a specialization. It's really comforting to know this sort of book is around to help parents and kids out.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Jessica Kingsley Publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This is an excellent book about supporting children, particularly those on the autistic spectrum through grief. It clearly explains the various questions that children often have, and gives suggested approaches and answers. I particularly liked the acknowledgement that some of the questions don't have answers, and that direct and clear responses are very important rather than euphemisms that can be confusing and unclear. I have written and taught courses on Loss, and this is an excellent and much needed support for parents and carers to discuss death with children.

A great resource for any parent or caregiver with a child on the autism spectrum. This text is simple and explains emotions and concepts in an easily relatable way.

This book has an interesting layout. It starts with a longer story, or more accurately a question answer session about what it means to be dead. The second part is the story simplified with pictures. However, I do not find the simplified answers section as truthful. For example, the Question “Why did they die?” and they had this answer “nobody really know why people die if they’re not old”. WRONG. In the longer story it was explained better. I do not think we should be telling any child, even on on the autism spectrum that we don’t know why people die if they are not old. Maybe it was an accident, or a medical problem,. This section was overly simplified. This book was designed to help parent and caregivers explain death to a child on the spectrum. I think most of it could work for any child, but once again if the simplified section, is too simple.

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This book handles a sensitive topic in a way children whose brains think differently (and adults) can understand. I went out and ordered it for my school library.

Explaining children about death is a difficult task. This book does the job in the form of Q&A with simple, clear answers that don't make the kids afraid. Though it is meant for children with special need, I would recommend it to all children and parents who want to know how to talk about death.