”Maybe Death is Like a Light” by Greg Lundgren

Greg Lundgren, both designer and handmade cremation urn provider, has written and illustrated a coloring book to help a child coping with death view his or her experience in a new light. The book, Maybe Death is Like a Light, walks away from the usual approach of actually trying to explain death to a child. Instead it simply evokes page after page of beautiful metaphors to offer a grieving child multiple ways to see the light at the end of a dark, grief-filled tunnel. The minute I saw this book, I had to review it.

Children have difficulties grasping why someone is gone, never to return and these new perspectives help a grieving child better cope with the universal question of “why?” or “why must everything in life end?”

Greg Lundgren uses a range of life’s moments to help paint new mental pictures of what death might be. Drawing on everything from nature, life’s pleasures, the magical, to even those sad everyday moments, each page offers up a different perspective. Typically children have difficulties grasping why someone is gone, never to return. This book helps a grieving child better cope with the universal questions of “why?” or “why must everything in life end?”

Through analogies of a delicious milkshake, or a fun road trip, or new friends at school, a child learns absolutely nothing will last forever. Life will continue to change, like a tadpole to a frog, or a helicopter taking us to a new magical place.  This coloring book is filled with experiences, and just like life, moves us towards something new and towards acceptance.

Here are a few examples:

Credit: Greg Lundgren

Credit: Greg Lundgren

You won’t find any saccharin or schmaltzy illustrations in this book. Lundgren’s drawings are as sophisticated as his urn designs. What I also loved about this book is how it serves up both insightful messages along with an activity. The act of coloring with crayons on each page allows time for a child coping with loss to reflect and to return again and again. If you seek group grief activities for gatherings of children, this book is ideal to get meaningful conversation going.

You won’t find any saccharin or schmaltzy illustrations in this book.

What a brilliant lovely book. Along with a box of crayons, Maybe Death is Like a Light is a most lovely bereavement gift for a small perplexed child.