After Life

July 23, 2018
Author and hospice volunteer Wilcox (What’s the Buzz? Keeping Bees in Flight) skillfully tackles the subject of death and dying in this nonfiction book for middle grade readers. Six short chapters (“We Are Stardust” and “Healing After Loss” among them) discuss the physiology of death—one page details what happens to the body minutes, hours, months, and years after the event—as well as the beliefs and rituals surrounding life’s end over the millennia and across the globe. Full-color photographs and artwork, as well as definitions and sidebars, will pull curious readers into the factual pages, which cover everything from green burials and grief stages to physician-assisted death, cryonic suspension, and bioethics. Thorough and well organized, this book honors its intended audience’s ability to handle the subject matter, offering detailed scientific, mythological, historical, cultural, and religious takes on how people handle death (“During the Middle Ages, parents in Europe dressed their young children like adults to trick death into looking elsewhere for its prey”). Print and online resource lists, an extensive glossary, and an index conclude this meaningful, straightforward look at an often taboo topic. Ages 9–12.

August 1, 2018

Gr 5 Up-Wilcox takes a matter-of-fact tone with the very intense topic of death. She breaks it down to scientific facts of life and death, bringing in various beliefs from different cultures and religions on what happens next. The last part discusses grief and how to deal with grieving. While students might not gravitate to this title on their own, readers curious or needing solace after a personal tragedy will find this insightful book very helpful, especially the last portion, which breaks down the grieving process and its importance to mental health. The book could also serve as a conversation starter. However, the text doesn't touch upon many current events and how they might be affecting young people. VERDICT A welcome selection for most collections, especially those in need of bibliotherapy titles for middle schoolers.-Esther Keller, I.S. 278, Brooklyn

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2018
Funeral and mourning customs from many cultures and religious traditions, scientific explanations of death, and ways to think about personal grief. Incorporating color photos, watercolor illustrations and spot art, sidebars, and legends in a layout that is sometimes too busy, this book reaches far into the past with information about burial rites in Egypt and Greece and then comes right up to the present with material about green burials and physician-assisted death. The chapter on grief posits that imagining emotions moving around a figure 8, on which "the more positive feelings are on the top part and the darker feelings are on the bottom part," may be a more useful way for young people to grieve than the often cited K�bler-Ross model, which is linear in scope. There is advice about seeking out help from "a parent, a teacher, a counselor, or another caring adult" if young people find themselves "stuck in the bottom of the 8." Occasionally, the book errs a bit. A double-page feature on limbo discusses ghosts, zombies, and other "undead beings" and is silent on the only recently discarded Catholic concept, for instance, and a discussion of funeral colors is accompanied by striking arrays of multicolored Mexican skulls, unmentioned there or even in the short caption for a photo of Day of the Dead customs two pages later.Quibbles aside, a sensitive approach to a difficult subject. (resources, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)

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November 15, 2018
Grades 5-8 The mystery that is death fascinates and repels people of all religions and cultures. Wilcox, a veteran hospice worker, takes on this difficult topic and offers both historical and mythological perspectives while, at the same time, giving concrete advice on ways to personally deal with death. Each chapter includes death myths from various religions and cultures but also focuses on practical matters: life expectancy, medicine and technologies, burial methods, and ways of grieving. She begins with the intriguing fact that we are stardust, describing how everything on earth contains the first atoms, which are continuously recycled. This sets the stage for information as prosaic as what colors people around the world wear for mourning to the ideas of ghosts and zombies. For those who've not experienced death, the book provides ways to help those who have; young mourners are given information about the stages of grief and ways to cope. Throughout, well-chosen color photographs and graphics lighten the mood. Although this can be a bit scattershot at times, it's a valuable book to have on shelves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)