Historical Perspectives and Comments on the Current Status of Death-Related Literature for Children

Abstract

The children found a dead bird. They wrapped it up. They buried it. They said some words and felt sad. They brought flowers for a few days. Then they forgot. This is the theme of the story in the first modern, in-print, actual hold-in-your-hands children's book about grief in my memory— The Dead Bird, by Margaret Wise Brown. It was dear to me because she wrote the first edition the year I was born, 1938, making me one of the gray-haired grandmothers and leaving Wise Brown dead now for more than 45 years. When my husband, Marv, and I founded Centering Corporation in 1977, The Dead Bird was the only book we could find for children. I'm sure there were others; we just didn't find them. They were hidden. Grief wasn't “in” then, and definitely not for children.