<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Book for Young Children
Review: As an elementary guidance counselor, I have had to use this book many times with my students. It is so basic for the students to understand, and the pictures are absolutely fantastic. Young children love dinosaur's, so it is especially easy to keep their attention and have them learn at the same time. I had a chance to use this book at another school earlier this year when a teacher was killed and the staff had an absolute fit over it. In fact I bought a copy for the new guidance counselor to add to his library. FANTASTIC BOOK- HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT FOR EVERY COUNSELOR!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: To the point
Review: Don't buy this non-sentimental look at death if your favorite book is Love You Forever.
If however, you want something that doesn't dwell excessively upon emotions, that discusses lucidly what death is and what it means, then this is an excellent choice. A parent trying to explain death to a child doesn't need a book full of emotional upheaval or roundabout references to death.
Of course there are flaws. But this book isn't about leaves, about dogs, cats or focussed on the death of an older person. It covers all areas adeptly. I liked it for the slightly distanced look at a subject that evokes a tremendous surge of feelings.
I bought it as a gift for a recently bereaved family (lost daddy). I plan on buying another copy for my family so the topic of death is covered before I'm too distraught to carefully guide my kids through that scene.
Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Simple help with a difficult subject
Review: Explaining death to a child is never easy for an adult, but the Browns' book really helps. You'll find difficult concepts made much simpler with colorful illustrations that remind the child of the "Arthur" cartoon series which the author also created.The kids with whom I have worked professionally have loved the little green dinosaurs who experience and express the same thoughts and feelings. When I talked to my daughter's preschool class a few years back after the class hamster died, I used parts of this book in my explanation. The brilliance of the Browns' concept is that one doesn't have to read the book straight through. A parent or teacher can choose to use two or three pages. In fact, each two-page spread tends to develop a specific concept such as funerals, cause of death, what death means, etc. As a matter of fact, this would be a nice addition to elementary school libraries and classrooms, especially when discussing the death part of their living things science units. It's interesting in my own professional library that this book takes its place right along with all of the academic volumes on death, bereavement, and counseling theory!
Rating:
Summary: Simple help with a difficult subject
Review: Explaining death to a child is never easy for an adult, but the Browns' book really helps. You'll find difficult concepts made much simpler with colorful illustrations that remind the child of the "Arthur" cartoon series which the author also created. The kids with whom I have worked professionally have loved the little green dinosaurs who experience and express the same thoughts and feelings. When I talked to my daughter's preschool class a few years back after the class hamster died, I used parts of this book in my explanation. The brilliance of the Browns' concept is that one doesn't have to read the book straight through. A parent or teacher can choose to use two or three pages. In fact, each two-page spread tends to develop a specific concept such as funerals, cause of death, what death means, etc. As a matter of fact, this would be a nice addition to elementary school libraries and classrooms, especially when discussing the death part of their living things science units. It's interesting in my own professional library that this book takes its place right along with all of the academic volumes on death, bereavement, and counseling theory!
Rating:
Summary: Answers for kids' direct questions
Review: I highly recommend this book. Kids ask very direct questions about death, and this book addresses those questions. Let's face it...it isn't always hamsters or very old grandparents who pass away. Sometimes people in our children's world die at early ages from disease, accidents, and even murder and suicide (both cases have touched our rather sheltered lives over the past six years that we've had children). Kids seem to do better with simple direct answers rather than obtuse allegorical references to leaves turning brown and seasons changing. This book allows you to step right up close to these unfortunate, tragic occurrences, acknowledge that they happen, and then move on. Because it's true that sooner or later death happens in our lives, and it happens in all kinds of ways, not just in tidy t.v. drama hospital bed settings. Get this book so you will be prepared when you need it.
Rating: 
Summary: When dinosaurs Die
Review: I read it to my kids after they lost their Grandmother. I skipped most of the parts dealing with suicide and other really grown up subjects. Then I put the book in the closet. I did not like this book. And I think you should really borrow it from the library and read it first before you buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: It has been almost six months since our High School Business Teacher, Mrs June Wang passed away. When she died, I found a copy of "When Dinosaurs Die" at a bookstore and donated it to the school library in memory of her. It was such a good book that it made the librarian cry. It has episodes in it like, What does Alive Mean, and What does Dead mean, and What Comes after death. My favorite book was when a little girl was getting her pet hamster ready to be buried and her brother took a piece of lettuce and said, "Here's a snack in case she gets hungry." And the mother said, "Sweetheart dead hamsters don't get hungry." That reminds me of when the egyptians put food in the pyramids for the mummies, for their life after death. Well worth owning.--Robert Metz
Rating: 
Summary: Overall a good start on a difficult subject
Review: My biggest problem with the book, would have to be the structure. It jumps from one type of family death to another (pet as opposed to a parent or grandparent) too quickly and in a confusing fashion. I think it would have been more effective if they had written it as a narrative of a young character learning a relative had died, and going through the stages of emotions, the funeral, aftermath, etc. Still, this book presents many of the situations kids are certain to go through when they lose a loved one (anger, denial) and for that I give much credit. I find it unfortunate that almost all authors of kids series that stress coping with new situations and rites of passage in life don't want to touch this subject, even though it is probably the most important issue that a child has to deal with at that age.
Rating:
Summary: Overall a good start on a difficult subject
Review: This book is direct and honest about the subject of death. This book covers every aspect of death from old age to accidental to suicide. The death of a pet is also covered. Also looks at several belief systems of what happens after we die.
As parents we are afraid to talk about death to our children and with our children, this book broaches the subject in a way children can relate without sugarcoating it.
I wish I had this book to read to my 5 year old daughter when her great great uncle and great grandfather died within 1 month of each other.
Some areas maybe too intense for small children or very sesitive children so use discretion what information you read when reading to them.
I think this would be an excellent book for 3rd and 4th graders experiencing death of a loved one.
Rating:
Summary: Troubling and confusing for younger children
Review: This book may be a fine resource for professional therapists and grief counselors. But PLEASE don't drop it on a child who hasn't yet grappled with a death in the family. In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, it's simplistic (and dishonest) to compare the loss of a grandparent with the demise of a hamster. In the interests of strict accuracy, why are extinct reptiles--all dinosaurs are dead!--sporting jeans and groomed hairstyles, sitting on the stoop of a brownstone? On an important topic like this, I'd prefer a realistic, honest, straightforward book featuring human beings.
<< 1 >>
| 
