And books about grief can help bridge that gap between being alone in your pain and reaching out to others for healing.”Įven as vaccination efforts offer hope for the pandemic’s end, and as more schools reopen, the road to healing may just be starting for many students. “Kids may not be ready or willing to talk about their feelings of grief right away,” she said. She has shared books with grief themes through individual recommendations and a virtual book display. Garcia said the baskets were a way to “acknowledge their grief until we were able to provide something more solid in terms of counseling and services.”Īdriana White, a middle school librarian in San Antonio, Texas, also sees the value in literature about loss. She partnered with a local bookstore to send “bereavement baskets” to students at her Brooklyn elementary school who lost family members to coronavirus. In Brooklyn, when schools were closed last spring, social worker Maria Garcia also turned to books to connect with grieving students. To help students name their emotions and develop coping strategies, McCall and her colleague Lindsay Singer developed social studies and reading units centered around children’s books about “big feelings.” And yet the world keeps spinning around them with seemingly little interruption or change in what's expected of them,” she said. “Our students have had COVID-19, have watched relatives struggle through COVID-19, and lost relatives. Kids have dealt with a lot in the last year, says Ashley McCall, a third grade teacher in Chicago.
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