| Grandma, What Is A Soul? Reviews |
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Being a grandfather myself, the author, Reverend Karen Herrick, had plucked my heart strings. What do you tell a little kid about death? And what do you tell the little kid still inside all of us about death, especially as we personally approach our own death? Reverend Herrick has a Western spiritualist approach, but not that far off from what my scientific self thinks is a useful way to think about things, and what she's written in Grandma, What Is A Soul? is touching, helpful, and can reach young kids.
As an example, her grandson wonders about the soul having something to do with the unconscious. Grandma replies
"When your brother was nine years old, he told me that he had read about the unconscious in his Calvin and Hobbes book. He said it's scary down there; you need a flashlight to see, and all this old stuff is piled up. People don't like going down there."
The second section of her book is for grown-ups, giving a brief overview of spiritualist writings on the subject of survival and some suggestions for further reading. As to the evidence for postmortem survival and a reincarnation, I can also, blushing slightly at not being more modest, recommend the relevant chapters in my The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together book.
---Charles T. Tart, PhD
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Required Reading for All Children
Clearly, death is a difficult subject for most people. It can be an especially difficult subject for children. I can still remember the anxieties and fears I experienced more than 70 years ago when a step-grandfather died. My parents didn't seem to know what to tell me, and I, just six or seven at the time, didn't know what questions to ask. It was all hush-hush. The trepidation multiplied 100-fold when we visited the crematorium and I tried to come to grips with what was left of "Papa" was now contained in a little metal box, one surrounded by hundreds of other little metal boxes with "people" in them.
If only my parents had explained it all to me as the author of this book explained it to her grandson, I believe I would have understood and would have avoided the haunting experience of that crematorium visit, one that remained with me for some time. Then again, I don't think I did any better in explaining my brother's death to my own children. It is such a difficult subject. You wouldn't know it, however, from this book. The author, a psychologist, found just the right words to satisfy her grandson and offer him peace of mind.
Unfortunately, our secular society isn't able to make the distinction between spirituality and formal religion. If it were able to do so, and if I had anything to say about it, this book would be required reading for every first grader.
---Michael E. Tymn; White Crow Books Author
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I wish with all my heart that we had more children’s books like this one!
Today’s kids are smarter, more curious, than any generation we have seen before. They’re into concepts and “real-reasons-why” almost at the same age they start talking. And they are especially interested in anything spiritual – perhaps that’s because their perceptual range is so broad, their awareness levels beyond typical school curriculums. Here we have a book where a grandson and grandma together tackle the question of soul. Grandma does not talk “down” to the child. She tackles the question head-on, sharing information from her own studies and life experiences, AND THEN, she includes a reference section and bibliography for parents in the back, so they will know where she’s coming from and why. This book gives us an example of the kind of respect missing in today’s literature for children – respect for the importance of the child’s question and the need for answers, and respect for the parental right to double-check what their child is being exposed to.
---PMH Atwater
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Delightful story, necessary subject!
All children have questions about what happens to their loved ones when they die but often don’t know how to ask or even what to ask about. This is a delightful little story to introduce young children to the subject while allowing them to begin to understand their own spirituality.
In a conversation with her grandson, the author has woven hope, faith and fact in a way that can be easily understood by children of all ages. The adorable and enchanting illustrations engaged my own grandchildren (ages 4 and 8) into the story and my 4 year old likened the story’s characters to our own family members, even referring to the angel as his own great–grandma who recently passed. I would highly recommend this book to all moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles—anyone who spends time with children with curious and questioning minds.
--- Karin Nemri
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Important words to give to our children and grandchildren
I read the section at the end for parents first to decide if I wanted to read this to my six year old grand daughter. I felt quite comfortable after reading it to suggest to Lily that we read the book together. She refused, and went to play with her doll house. So I sat down near her and started to read it out loud. Within the first page, she had cuddled up to me and listened intently. What a tender experience! Everything I wanted to tell her but was too cautious to actually do it -- flowed from this book.
Karen Herrick is to be applauded for this important link she created for us with our grand children and eternity.
---Barbara H. Whitfield co-author of Timeless Troubadours, The Moody Blues Music and Message Barbara Harris Whitfield, Author and Researcher |
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