Bryan Mellonie Lifetimes Children’s Picture Book About Death and Grief

Death is the End

My 8-year-old grandson recently experienced the death of his beloved great grandmother. I was searching for a book that could help him not feel so lonely about her being gone physically. We believe in life after death.

This book got great reviews! I decided to get it, along with a few others. The book starts out all right, describing life cycles of plants and animals; however, when it comes to people, it says, “Well, like everything else that is alive, people have lifetimes, too … They live for about sixty or seventy years, sometimes even longer …” What? That’s it? And, come on, life expectancies are much longer than 60 years these days!

The ending doesn’t make a grieving child feel any better! “So, no matter how long or short they are, lifetimes are really all the same. They have beginnings, and endings, and there’s living in between.”

I was so disappointed with this final explanation.

If you do not believe in any kind of afterlife, then this is for you. However, if you do believe, this fails to make any connection.

Beautiful and Simple Explanation

I love how simple the explanation is. There isn't any references to the spiritual side of death which I like and there isn't any graphics. The butterfly is the worst graphic imo.

Very problematic language …

PLEASE READ THIS BOOK YOURSELF BEFORE READING IT TO A CHILD

I am shocked that this book had so many positive reviews.

My 5-year-old has starting asking a lot of questions about death. So I was hoping this would be a good book for him. But there’s highly problematic language.

The book’s concept is good. The idea is that everything that is alive has a beginning, middle and end. For some animals or insects - like a butterfly - the lifespan could be very short. And for a tree the lifespan could be very long.

But when the book gets to the point where it talks about people it says “they live for about sixty or seventy years, sometimes even longer.”

In my family - like most families - we have many close relatives who are in their 80s and 90s.

When the concept of life and death is attached to specific numbers - especially low numbers like 60s and 70s - many children will start thinking that their grandparents and older relatives could die at any time.

Personally, I think it’s a huge mistake that any ages are included at all. I agree with the idea that everything and everyone has his time. But specific numbers can be very scary to a young child.

Sadly, I don’t recommend this book at all.

Jacqueline

January 22, 2021

Damaged book.

So disappointed my book came completely wrinkled..

This book helped me accept death

I got this book for my son a couple of years back, and we love it. It actually helped both of us understand and accept death better. (In fact, it made me cry — release of tension, maybe?)

The writing is simple, calming.... gentle. It talks about plants, animals, and people; and it reminds us that dying is just a part of living.

It also helped me understand that a shorter life isn’t necessarily worse than a longer life, just....different, as all lives are.

Out of the several books that I got my son about death, this book is my favorite, by far.

Good book, poor print quality.

The book is good. Easy to read, matter of fact. It’s the printing that I’m disappointed in. Here’s just one page of many where the ink is smeared.