After Life: Ways We Think About Death

by Merrie-Ellen Wilcox

Overview

Why do we die? Why can't we live forever? What happens to us after death?

Moving between science and culture, After Life: Ways We Think About Death takes a straightforward look at these and other questions long taboo in our society. By showing the fascinating, diverse ways in which we understand death, both today and throughout our history, the book also shines a light on what it is to be human. Each chapter includes a brief telling of a death legend, myth or history from a different culture or tradition, from Adam and Eve to Wolf and Coyote, and ends with a section on a common theme in our thinking about death, such as rivers and birds in the afterlife, the colors that different cultures use to symbolize death, and, of course, ghosts. The final chapter is about grief, which is both a universal human experience and unique to each person. The text offers suggestions for ways to think about our grief, when to ask for help and how to talk to friends who are grieving.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459813915
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	88
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Merrie-Ellen Wilcox is a writer and editor whose first book for children, What's the Buzz?: Keeping Bees in Flight, is part of the Orca Footprints series. She has two adult children and lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her husband and a busy Jack Russell.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: We Are Stardust

• The afterlife
• Recycling souls
• Life in another realm
• Rivers

Chapter Two: Every Living Thing

• It’s all about oxygen
• How long do we live?
• A hard life for babies
• Gimme shelter—and food and water
• Limbo

Chapter Three: Nature or Science?

• Turning off the machines
• Drawing the line
• Passing life on
• Caring for people who are dying
• Helping people die
• Birds

Chapter Four: Atoms to Atoms

• Burial
• Mummification
• Embalming
• Cremation
• Sky burial
• Burial at sea
• Green burial
• Coffins

Chapter Five: Farewell, Adieu

• Washing and dressing
• Prayers and parties
• Processions
• Ceremonies
• Mourning
• Colors

Chapter Six: Healing after Loss

• Grief is a process
• The 8 of grief
• Just get over it?
• Time: The great healer?
• When someone dies by suicide
• When pets die
• When you are grieving
• When someone else is grieving
• Festivals

Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Resources
Glossary
Index

Editorial Reviews

07/23/2018
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. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"In the age of social media, it is now more important than ever that we talk about death with young people. After Life explores the subject of death in a compassionate, straightforward and age-appropriate way. It is an essential resource for middle schoolers—and their educators and parents."

Dr. Jillian Roberts

"This fresh, friendly and matter-of-fact tone is what makes After Life really work. This is a useful and interesting book intended to help nine to 12-year-olds deal with all of the thoughts and issues around this sometimes shunned topic."

January Magazine

Colorful photos, archival illustrations, and diagrams are inviting and provide balance to the heavy topic.

The Horn Book

"Young people need death education! After Life: Ways We Think About Death opens the door and welcomes them to learn about this important life event. Merrie-Ellen Wilcox successfully marries culture and the natural world in an attractive and engaging format for readers. This book will be an excellent resource for teachers, parents, libraries and hospices wanting to support young people to learn about dying and death."

Dr. Kathy Kortes-Miller author of Talking About Death Won't Kill You

"Chapters are packed with information…Kids will love the sidebars…Teachers can use After Life for interventions when death and grieving arise in a classroom and can use it as a comprehensive introduction to the topics for study."

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

"Takes on this difficult topic and offers both historical and mythological perspective while, at the same time, giving concrete advice on ways to personally deal with death…It's a valuable book to have on shelves."

Booklist

"An unashamedly honest, visually compelling guide to death and dying for young readers. Just as essential as Sex Ed!"

Jessica Zitter M.D. Critical and Palliative Care Specialist

"Chapters are packed with information…Kids will love the sidebars…Teachers can use After Life for interventions when death and grieving arise in a classroom and can use it as a comprehensive introduction to the topics for study."

CM Magazine

"In the age of social media, it is now more important than ever that we talk about death with young people. After Life explores the subject of death in a compassionate, straightforward and age-appropriate way. It is an essential resource for middle schoolers—and their educators and parents."

child psychologist and author of the World Around Dr. Jillian Roberts

Colorful photos, archival illustrations, and diagrams are inviting and provide balance to the heavy topic.

The Horn Book Online

"An unashamedly honest, visually compelling guide to death and dying for young readers. Just as essential as Sex Ed!"

author of Extreme Measures: Finding a Better P Jessica Zitter M.D. Critical and Palliative Care Specialist

"Takes on this difficult topic and offers both historical and mythological perspective while, at the same time, giving concrete advice on ways to personally deal with death…It's a valuable book to have on shelves."

Booklist

08/01/2018
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

School Library Journal

2018-06-25
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 Kübler-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)

Kirkus Reviews