When a parent has died

A Half Baked Idea

Olivia Potts

At the moment her mother died, Olivia Potts was baking a cake, badly. She was trying to impress the man who would later become her husband. Afterwards, grief pushed Olivia into the kitchen. She came home from her job as a criminal barrister miserable and tired, and baked soda bread, pizza, and chocolate banana cake. Her cakes sank and her custard curdled. But she found comfort in jams and solace in pies, and what began as a distraction from grief became a way of building a life outside grief, a way of surviving, and making sense of her life without her mum. 

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Big Boys (Television Series)

Written by comedian Jack Rooke and loosely based on his own experiences, Big Boys tells the story of two mismatched boys who strike up an unlikely friendship when they're thrown together at university, following the death of one of their fathers.

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Crying in H Mart

From the indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unflinching, powerful, deeply moving memoir about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

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Grief Is The Thing With Feathers

Max Porter

He comes with a crackling of feathers and a smell of decay. He comes like the worst thing you could ever imagine, like something you should never have to imagine, he comes when you need him. He is a reminder, a companion, a harbinger, a scruffy homeless layabout, a friend. He is Crow.  

In a London flat, two young boys face the unbearable sadness of their mother's sudden death. Their father, a Ted Hughes scholar and scruffy romantic, imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness. In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow - antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This sentimental bird is drawn to the grieving family becoming the mouthpiece for their sorrow, an echo of what cannot be said. Slowly, as the months pass, they become familiar with Crow and his odd companionship and almost imperceptibly, they begin to heal. 

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Rory’s Story

Anna Jacobs

Rory is an adolescent boy who is struggling with the loss of his mother. Confused and bullied at school, he attempts to run away and finally returns to face his feelings. This therapeutic story is a gritty, readable story that teenagers will relate to; it explores the teenage experience of loss and bereavement; it can be used to support young people who have experienced loss; it can help teenagers understand the needs of their peers when loss occurs; it has notes for discussion on the themes of each chapter.

This story can be used in conjunction with the practical workbook 'Supporting Teenagers through Grief & Loss'. This useful tool which will help teachers, therapists and carers to support and understand the needs of adolescents facing loss.

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