My Best Friend Teddy
My Best Friend Teddy is a story that normalizes the grief process for children. The story models Max’s grief journey as he tries to make sense over the loss of his best friend Teddy. Despite the pain and the complexities of grief, Max discovers a way to live a life with meaning and purpose. In finding gratitude for the friendship they shared as well as ways to continue to feel connected to Teddy, Max finds a way to live without, and yet with, his best friend.
The story is impactful in that the reader witnesses Teddy experiencing various thoughts and feelings beginning with anticipatory grief and ending with an integration of the loss into his current life. Teddy is able to discover a continued bond where despite the loss, love remains. This picture book is most suitable for children ages 4-10 years old who have suffered any type of loss.
Denise Gordon is a mother, wife, psychologist, grief educator, and most recently author. While her 20 + years in the mental health field provided a strong foundation to help others navigate life’s challenges, it wasn’t until Denise experienced the loss of her 10-year-old son Nathan that she could have imagined the depth and complexities of dealing with one’s grief while helping her other two sons navigate theirs. As an accomplished psychologist born in Mexico, Denise also created the book in Spanish to reach broader communities.
In addition, Denise created an interactive workbook Here Comes The Sun, to help children take a deeper dive into processing grief in a supportive and therapeutic manner. Here Comes The Sun is self guided through child friendly prompts that make it easy for any adult to offer as support to a child in grief.
