Resources

Death Expo 2022

Join us on the campus of Elon University for our second Death Expo, a day of speakers and vendors from the death care industry. Save the date of Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at The Mosely Center at Elon University. Read more

12 Myths of Funerals Video

During the Funeral Consumers Alliance North Carolina (FCANC) first annual meeting on May 16, 2021 via ZOOM, FCANC President Sara Williams presented the Twelve Funeral Myths. Watch the video here. Sara explores some common misconceptions that for the most part have arisen because of the commercialization of funeral practices.

Articles, Books, and Web Sites to Answer Your Questions

Articles & Quick Reads

Timely and Helpful Books for Planning and Preparing for Death

By Rebecca Taylor (Please email me your suggestions for books you’ve read that you recommend adding to this list.)
FUNERALS, FUNERALS HOMES, AND FUNERAL PLANNING

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. Norton, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty―a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre―took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both living and very dead), Caitlin learned to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased. Honest and heartfelt, self-deprecating and ironic, Caitlin’s engaging style makes this otherwise taboo topic both approachable and engrossing. Now a licensed mortician with an alternative funeral practice, Caitlin argues that our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead).

A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die by Gail Rubin. Light Tree Press, paperback and e-book. Provides the information, inspiration and tools to plan and implement creative, meaningful and memorable end-of-life rituals for people and pets. Just as talking about sex won’t make you pregnant, talking about funerals won’t make you dead – and your family will benefit from the conversation. Learn how to save money, reduce family conflict, and avoid stress at a time of grief.

Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips by Gail Rubin and Susan Fraser. Light Tree Press, paperback.Thousands of families won’t know what to do with their loved ones’ cremated remains or how to create a meaningful memorial service. HAIL AND FAREWELL: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips provides all the answers. The book covers everything related to creating a meaningful memorial service with cremated remains: Why it’s important to hold some sort of goodbye ceremony. Examples of different ways to scatter ashes – more than you’d think! Stories of creative memorial services in different settings to spark ideas. Templates to easily create meaningful memorial services.

CHECKLISTS AND PLANNING DOCUMENTS

This particular “genre” has proliferated in the last few years and there are many, many versions available at online bookstores. These are the best I’ve found.

Final Wishes: Estate Planning • Legal Documents • Personal Wishes & Instructions • Household and Online Accounts Simple Start Guides, paperback. This checklist estate planner gathers all your vital information in one place. Record the location of legal documents such as your will, your living will, names and addresses of friends and relatives, property deeds, insurance policies, checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, retirement savings in Iras and 401ks and pensions, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, safe deposit box keys and contents, your mortgage and other loans’ paperwork, your vehicles and their titles, business licenses and other documents for sole proprietors, your preferences about organ donation, instructions for burial or cremation and more.

ABA/AARP Checklist for My Family: A Guide to My History, Financial Plans and Final Wishes by Sally Balch Hurme. American Bar Association, paperback. This book guides you through the process of gathering in one place your finances, legal documents, online accounts, wishes about medical care, and more. Plus it tells you what you need, why you need it, what’s missing, and where to get it. This book is also a gift to your loved ones. It spares them stressful decisions and needless frustrations when you’re ill or upon your death. And it presents them with your legacy, by providing specific knowledge of family history and recollections about your life, interests, and accomplishments. Whether you choose to gather this critical information in the book itself or through the forms available free online, you can easily customize and organize your information.

Get It Together: Organize Your Records So Your Family Won’t Have To by Melanie Cullen and Shae Irving J.D. NOLO, paperback, spiral bound, e-book. (Ninth Edition to be released September, 2020) Provides a complete system for structuring and organizing your information and documents into a records binder. For each topic, you will find step-by-step instructions, helpful content, and rich resources. Do your loved ones know where to find your life insurance policies, online banking passwords, real estate deeds, or even your will? The updated 9th edition is reorganized to make it easier to get started. All forms are downloadable through a link printed in the book.

GREEN BURIAL AND OTHER ALTERNATIVES

Greening Death: Reclaiming Burial Practices and Restoring Our Tie to the Earth by Suzanne Kelly. Rowman and Littlefield, hardcover, paperback, e-book. We once disposed of our dead in earth-friendly ways—no chemicals, biodegradable containers, dust to dust. But over the last 150 years death care has become a toxic, polluting, and alienating industry in the United States. Today, people are slowly waking up to the possibility of more sustainable and less disaffecting death care, reclaiming old practices in new ways, in a new age. Greening Death traces the philosophical and historical backstory to this awakening, captures the passionate on-the-ground work of the Green Burial Movement, and explores the obstacles and other challenges getting in the way of more robust mobilization. As the movement lays claim to greener, simpler, and more cost-efficient practices, something even more promising is being offered up—a tangible way of restoring our relationship to nature.

Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials by Lucinda Herring. North Atlantic, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Natural, legal, and innovative after-death care options are transforming the paradigm of the existing funeral industry, helping families and communities recover their instinctive capacity to care for a loved one after death and do so in creative and healing ways. Reimagining Death offers stories and guidance for home funeral vigils, advance after-death care directives, green burials, and conscious dying. When we bring art and beauty, meaningful ritual, and joy to ease our loss and sorrow, we are greening the gateway of death and returning home to ourselves, to the wisdom of our bodies, and to the earth.

The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial by Elizabeth Fournier. New World, paperback, e-book. Funeral expenses in the United States average more than $10,000. And every year conventional funerals bury millions of tons of wood, concrete, and metals, as well as millions of gallons of carcinogenic embalming fluid. There is a better way, and Elizabeth Fournier, affectionately dubbed the “Green Reaper,” walks you through it, step-by-step. She provides comprehensive and compassionate guidance, covering everything from green burial planning and home funeral basics to legal guidelines and outside-the-box options, such as burials at sea. Fournier points the way to green burial practices that consider both the environmental well-being of the planet and the economic well-being of loved ones.

Home Funeral Ceremonies: A primer to honor the dying and the dead with reverence, light-heartedness and grace by Kateyanne Unullisi, Donna Belk. Skull, paperback, e-book. Home Funeral Guides and funeral celebrants, Donna Belk and Kateyanne Unullisi, have midwifed the dying, the dead, and the grieving many times. They know how important and healing it is to intentionally mark a transitional time with ceremony and ritual. This simple yet powerful guidebook will help you with ceremonies to make the journey through a death — from being with the dying person, to preparing the body, vigil, leave-taking, disposition, and beyond. Weaving the practical with poetry and insight, these ceremonies guide with intention and clarity, to bring ritual into the room where death dwells.

BOOKS ON DEATH AND DYING

The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life by Katy Butler. Scribner, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. “A common sense path to define what a ‘good’ death looks like” (USA TODAY), The Art of Dying Well is about living as well as possible for as long as possible and adapting successfully to change. Packed with extraordinarily helpful insights and inspiring true stories, award-winning journalist Katy Butler shows how to thrive in later life (even when coping with a chronic medical condition), how to get the best from our health system, and how to make your own “good death” more likely. Butler explains how to successfully age in place, why to pick a younger doctor and how to have an honest conversation with them, when not to call 911, and how to make your death a sacred rite of passage rather than a medical event. This handbook of preparations—practical, communal, physical, and spiritual—will help you make the most of your remaining time, be it decades, years, or months.

With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix. Little Brown, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Modern medical technology is allowing us to live longer and fuller lives than ever before. And for the most part, that is good news. But with changes in the way we understand medicine come changes in the way we understand death. Once a familiar, peaceful, and gentle — if sorrowful — transition, death has come to be something from which we shield our eyes, as we prefer to fight desperately against it rather than accept its inevitability. Dr. Kathryn Mannix has studied and practiced palliative care for thirty years. She shares beautifully crafted stories from a lifetime of caring for the dying, and makes a compelling case for the therapeutic power of approaching death not with trepidation, but with openness, clarity, and understanding.

Let’s Talk about Death (over Dinner): An Invitation and Guide to Life’s Most Important Conversation by Michael Hebb. De Capo, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations–not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There’s no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time- and dinner- tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful–ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying by Sallie Tisdale. Gallery, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Informed by her many years working as a nurse, with more than a decade in palliative care, Tisdale provides a frank, direct, and compassionate meditation on the inevitable. From the sublime (the faint sound of Mozart as you take your last breath) to the ridiculous (lessons on how to close the sagging jaw of a corpse), Tisdale leads us through the peaks and troughs of death with a calm, wise, and humorous hand. Advice for Future Corpses is more than a how-to manual or a spiritual bible: it is a graceful compilation of honest and intimate anecdotes based on the deaths Tisdale has witnessed in her work and life, as well as stories from cultures, traditions, and literature around the world.

A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death by Dr. BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger. Simon and Schuster, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book.“There is nothing wrong with you for dying,” hospice physician B.J. Miller and journalist and caregiver Shoshana Berger write “Our ultimate purpose here isn’t so much to help you die as it is to free up as much life as possible until you do.” Theirs is a clear-eyed and big-hearted action plan for approaching the end of life, written to help readers feel more in control of an experience that so often seems anything but controllable. Their book offers everything from step-by-step instructions for how to do your paperwork and navigate the healthcare system to answers to questions you might be afraid to ask your doctor, like whether or not sex is still okay when you’re sick. Get advice for how to break the news to your employer, whether to share old secrets with your family, how to face friends who might not be as empathetic as you’d hoped, and how to talk to your children about your will. There are also lessons for survivors, like how to shut down a loved one’s social media accounts, clean out the house, and write a great eulogy.

BOOKS BY LEADERS OF THE “RATIONAL DEATH MOVEMENT”

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty. Norton, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with “dignity.” Doughty contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular―and, upon close inspection, peculiar―set of “respectful” rites: bodies are whisked to a mortuary, pumped full of chemicals, and entombed in concrete. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased, and have space to participate in the process.

Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler. Scribner, hardcover, audiobook, e-book. Katy Butler was living thousands of miles from her vigorous and self-reliant parents when the call came: a crippling stroke had left her proud seventy-nine-year-old father unable to fasten a belt or complete a sentence. Butler joined the twenty-four million Americans helping shepherd parents through their final declines. With a reporter’s skill and a daughter’s love, Butler explores what happens when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of medicine. Her provocative thesis is that modern medicine, in its pursuit of maximum longevity, often creates more suffering than it prevents. This revolutionary blend of memoir and investigative reporting lays bare the tangled web of technology, medicine, and commerce that dying has become. And it chronicles the rise of Slow Medicine, a new movement trying to reclaim the “Good Deaths” our ancestors prized.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Picador, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and Chicago Tribune, now in paperback with a new reading group guide.

Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death by Lisa Carlson and Joshua Slocum. Funeral Consumers Alliance, paperback and e-book. The two most prominent leaders of the funeral consumer movement are the authors of this book: Joshua Slocum, executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, and Lisa Carlson, executive director of Funeral Ethics Organization. Here they join forces to expose wrongdoing, inform consumers of their rights, and propose legal reforms. The book includes state-by-state summaries of laws, regulations, services, and consumer concerns.

BOOKS FOR CAREGIVERS

A Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging Parents–and Ourselves by Jane Gross. Vintage, paperback, audio book, e-book. When Jane Gross found herself suddenly thrust into a caretaker role for her eighty-five year-old mother, she was forced to face challenges that she had never imagined. As she and her younger brother struggled to move her mother into an assisted living facility, deal with seemingly never-ending costs, and adapt to the demands on her time and psyche, she learned valuable and important lessons. Here, the longtime New York Times expert on the subject of elderly care and the founder of the New Old Age blog shares her frustrating, heartbreaking, enlightening, and ultimately redemptive journey, providing us along the way with valuable information that she wishes she had known earlier. We learn why finding a general practitioner with a specialty in geriatrics should be your first move when relocating a parent; how to deal with Medicaid and Medicare; how to understand and provide for your own needs as a caretaker; and much more.

Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care ed. by Koshin Paley Ellison, Matt Weingast. Wisdom, paperback, e-book. Pioneers of palliative and end-of-life care as well as doctors, chaplains, caregivers and even poets offer wisdom that will challenge, uplift, comfort—and change the way we think about death. Equal parts instruction manual and spiritual testimony, it includes specific instructions and personal accounts to inspire, counsel, and teach. An indispensable resource for anyone involved in hospice work or caregiving of any kind.

A PDF version of this list for printing is posted here: Timely and Helpful Books for Planning and Preparing for Death

Books for Children and Young Adults

FOR YOUNG CHILDREN/BOOKS TO BE READ ALOUD

Something Very Sad Happened: A Toddler’s Guide to Understanding Death by Bonnie Zucker, illustrated by Kim Fleming. Magination Press, hardcover. Intended to be read to two- and three-year-old children to help them understand death and process the loss of a loved one. Written at a developmental level that is appropriate for two- and three-year-olds, the story explains death; lets children know that it is okay to feel sad; and reassures children that they can still love the person who died, and the person who died will always love them. Since the two- to three-year-old child cannot read, this story is intended to be personalized; certain words are color-coded in red to cue to you to substitute with the appropriate names and pronouns for the person who died. Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with more information about talking to children about death, guidelines for answering a child’s questions, advice for attending funerals and visiting cemeteries, and ideas for commemorating the loved one. [Well reviewed in School Library Journal and Booklist]

The Memory Box: A Book about Grief by Joanna Rowland, illustrated by Thea Baker. Sparkhouse Family, boardbook. Joanna Rowland artfully describes what it is like to remember and grieve a loved one who has died. The child in the story creates a memory box to keep mementos and written memories of the loved one, to help in the grieving process. Heartfelt and comforting, The Memory Box will help children and adults talk about this very difficult topic together. The unique point of view allows the reader to imagine the loss of any they have loved – a friend, family member, or even a pet. A parent guide in the back includes information on helping children manage the complex and difficult emotions they feel when they lose someone they love, as well as suggestions on how to create their own memory box. [The Memory Box is a 2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards winner.]

The Goodbye Book by Todd Parr. Little Brown, hardcover, e-book. Through the lens of a pet fish who has lost his companion, Todd Parr tells a moving and wholly accessible story about saying goodbye. Touching upon the host of emotions children experience, Todd reminds readers that it’s okay not to know all the answers, and that someone will always be there to support them. An invaluable resource for life’s toughest moments. [Well reviewed in School Library Journal]

FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved, illustrated by Charlotte Pardi, translated by Robert Moulthrop. Enchanted Lion, e-book. Aware their grandmother is gravely ill, four siblings make a pact to keep death from taking her away. But Death does arrive all the same, as it must. He comes gently, naturally. And he comes with enough time to share a story with the children that helps them to realize the value of loss to life and the importance of being able to say goodbye. [Well reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly, Winner of the 2017 Batchelor Award]

What Is Death? by Etan Boritzer, illustrated by Nancy Forest. Veronica Lake, hardcover, paperback, e-book. Addresses children s natural curiosity about this difficult subject. Introducing the concept of death with examples of customs and beliefs from different religions and cultures, the book also allows the reader to reflect on themes of tolerance, identity and generosity. Reality-based and using a gentle and comforting tone, WHAT IS DEATH? takes an honest approach and encourages children to embrace the positive in life. In its 7th edition, this book has become a standard part of many grief and loss counselor s professional resources.

What Happens at a Funeral? by David Crossmeister. Powerkids Press, hardcover, paperback. Attending a funeral is often an unfamiliar situation for young children. Grieving people experience many emotions, which could make children scared, confused, or uncomfortable. Through accessible language, this book helps readers understand what they might expect during and after a funeral. Full-color photographs introduce places, such as the cemetery, and objects, such as a coffin, that may be seen at a funeral. By providing readers with information about what to expect, they can better cope with their emotions surrounding this new experience.

The End of Something Wonderful: A Practical Guide to a Backyard Funeral by Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic, illustrated by George Ermos. Sterling, hardcover, e-book. Children love their pets very much—and when the animals die, that loss can be hard to process. The End of Something Wonderful helps kids handle their feelings when they’re hurting and can’t find all the right words. In a warm, understanding, sometimes funny way, it guides children as they plan a backyard funeral to say goodbye, from choosing a box and a burial spot to giving a eulogy and wiping away tears. Most of all, it reassures them that it’s not the end of everything . . . and that Something Wonderful can always happen again.

Anna’s Big Wish: How Love and Faith Can Help Us Say Goodbye by Tracy Harding, illustrated by Anna Mosca. SPD Publishing, hardcover, e-book. A charming story about how six-year-old Anna gets her biggest wish of all. Her unusual request is that she really wants to visit her recently deceased grandmother, Nana. With easy to understand and sensitive dialog, young readers can travel with Anna as she gets to say goodbye to her grandmother on her own terms. This beautifully illustrated book and tender story will help children overcome their fears, worries, and concerns about loss of loved family and friends.

The Pond by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Cathy Fisher. Graffeg, hardcover, paperback, e-book. A touching picture book for children about a young boy and his family overcoming the loss of his father. This colorful, emotional book is filled with natural imagery, centering on a small pond in the garden, and will teach children not only about death and loss, but the importance of the natural world.

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart. Scholastic, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. In all the ways that matter, Mark is a normal kid. He’s got a dog named Beau and a best friend, Jessie. He likes to take photos and write haiku poems in his notebook. He dreams of climbing a mountain one day. But in one important way, Mark is not like other kids at all. Mark is sick. The kind of sick that means hospitals. And treatments. The kind of sick some people never get better from. So Mark runs away. He leaves home with his camera, his notebook, his dog, and a plan to reach the top of Mount Rainier–even if it’s the last thing he ever does. The Honest Truth is a rare and extraordinary novel about big questions, small moments, and the incredible journey of the human spirit. [Well reviewed in School Library Journal]

My Father’s Words by Patricia MacLachlan. Katherine Tegen Books, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Declan O’Brien always had a gentle word to share, odd phrases he liked to repeat, and songs to sing while he played basketball. His favorite song was “Dona Nobis Pacem.” His family loved him deeply and always knew they were loved in return. But a terrible accident one day changes their lives forever, and Fiona and Finn O’Brien are left without a father. Their mother is at a loss. What words are there to guide them through such overwhelming grief? At the suggestion of their friend Luke, Fiona and Finn volunteer at an animal rescue shelter, where they meet two sweet dogs who are in need of comfort, too. Perhaps with time, patience, and their father’s gentle words in their hearts, hope will spark once more. [Newbery Award winning author; Starred reviews in Kirkus, Booklist, well-reviewed School Library Journal]

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia, illustrated by Frank Morrison. Quill Tree Books, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Clayton feels most alive when he’s with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd, and the band of Bluesmen—he can’t wait to join them, just as soon as he has a blues song of his own. But then the unthinkable happens. Cool Papa Byrd dies, and Clayton’s mother forbids Clayton from playing the blues. And Clayton knows that’s no way to live. Armed with his grandfather’s brown porkpie hat and his harmonica, he runs away from home in search of the Bluesmen, hoping he can join them on the road. But on the journey that takes him through the New York City subways and to Washington Square Park, Clayton learns some things that surprise him. [National Book Award Finalist; Starred reviews in Kirkus, Horn Book, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal]

MIDDLE SCHOOL AND TEEN

When a Friend Dies: A Book for Teens About Grieving & Healing (Updated 3rd Edition) by Marilyn E. Gootman Ed.D. Free Spirit, paperback. The death of a friend is a wrenching event for anyone at any age and can spark feelings that range from sadness to guilt to anxiety. Teenagers especially need help coping with grief and loss. This sensitive book answers questions grieving teens often have, like “How should I be acting?” “How long will this last?” and “What if I can’t handle my grief on my own?” The book also addresses the complicated emotions that can accompany the death of an acquaintance, as opposed to a close friend. The advice is gentle, non-preachy, and compassionate; recommended for parents and teachers of teens who have experienced a painful loss. [Reviewed in VOYA, School Library Journal]

After Life: Ways We Think About Death by Merrie-Ellen Wilcox. Orca, hardcover, e-book. Why do we die? Why can’t we live forever? What happens to us after death? Moving between science and culture, After Life: Ways We Think About Death takes a straightforward look at these and other questions long taboo in our society. By showing the fascinating, diverse ways in which we understand death, both today and throughout our history, the book also shines a light on what it is to be human. Each chapter includes a brief telling of a death legend, myth or history from a different culture or tradition, from Adam and Eve to Wolf and Coyote, and ends with a section on a common theme in our thinking about death, such as rivers and birds in the afterlife, the colors that different cultures use to symbolize death, and, of course, ghosts. The final chapter is about grief, which is both a universal human experience and unique to each person. The text offers suggestions for ways to think about our grief, when to ask for help and how to talk to friends who are grieving. [Reviewed by Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal, Horn Book, Publisher’s Weekly]

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty, illustrated by Dianné Ruz. Norton, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane.

A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay. Candlewick, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. The monster in Conor’s backyard is not the one he’s been expecting — the one from the nightmare he’s had every night since his mother started her treatments. This monster is ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd — whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself — Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined. [Won the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals; Starred review in Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist]

The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore. Yearling, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. It’s Christmas Eve in Harlem, but twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul and his mom aren’t celebrating. They’re still reeling from his older brother’s death in a gang-related shooting just a few months earlier. Then Lolly’s mother’s girlfriend brings him a gift that will change everything: two enormous bags filled with Legos. Lolly’s always loved Legos, and he prides himself on following the kit instructions exactly. Now, faced with a pile of building blocks and no instructions, Lolly must find his own way forward. [Winner of the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent and soon to be a major motion picture directed by Michael B. Jordan!]

Accidental by Alex Richards. Bloomsbury, hardcover, e-book. Johanna has had more than enough trauma in her life. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her father went AWOL when Johanna was just a baby. At sixteen, life is steady, boring . . . maybe even stifling, since she’s being raised by her grandparents who never talk about their daughter, her mother Mandy. Then he comes back: Robert Newsome, Johanna’s father, bringing memories and pictures of Mandy. But that’s not all he shares. A tragic car accident didn’t kill Mandy–it was Johanna, who at two years old, accidentally shot her own mother with an unsecured gun. Now Johanna has to sort through it all–the return of her absentee father, her grandparents’ lies, her part in her mother’s death. But no one, neither her loyal best friends nor her sweet new boyfriend, can help her forgive them. Most of all, can she ever find a way to forgive herself? [Well reviewed New York Times]

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Quill Tree, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people… In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez. Knopf, hardcover, paperback, audiobook, e-book. Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed. [Reviewed in Booklist, School Library Journal, starred review]

Sorry for Your Loss by Jessie Ann Foley. Quill Tree Books, hardback, paperback, audiobook, e-book. As the youngest of eight, painfully average Pup Flanagan is used to flying under the radar. He’s barely passing his classes. He lets his longtime crush walk all over him. And he’s in no hurry to decide on a college path. The only person who ever made him think he could be more was his older brother Patrick. But that was before Patrick died suddenly, leaving Pup with a family who won’t talk about it and acquaintances who just keep saying, “sorry for your loss.” When Pup excels at a photography assignment he thought he’d bomb, things start to come into focus. His dream girl shows her true colors. An unexpected friend exposes Pup to a whole new world, right under his nose. And the photograph that was supposed to show Pup a way out of his grief ultimately reveals someone else who is still stuck in their own. Someone with a secret regret Pup never could have imagined. [Printz Honor winner and Morris Award finalist; Reviewed in Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly]