Children’s Grief Awareness Week

‘Books to support change, bereavement and loss for young people now available across our Highland Libraries’

It is Children’s Grief Awareness Week 17-23 November 2025, we know that many children and young people can feel isolated and lonely, particularly during the initial time after family changes, bereavement and loss. The Highland Council via the Family Wellbeing Fund has launched new books across High Life Highland Libraries and schools that will help parents, professionals and most importantly our young people experiencing grief.

Books will be heading to libraries across Highland; e-books and some school libraries will also have resources available to them. A bookmark will be inside every book with a link to the Change, Loss and Bereavement Highland website (external link) so people can have access to a wide range of other resources that are available. 

Education Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “As part of Children’s Grief Awareness Week we are launching new resources to support those impacted by change, bereavement and loss.  We know that bereavement does not define a person, although it can become part of their identity, it can also give a child or young person insights and resilience they can take through their life.

“Life is finite, and we all experience bereavement, but grief is hard, particularly for our young people to navigate. We want to encourage children, young people, families, services, organisations, practitioners, managers and anyone who supports a bereaved child or young person to have access to books that are sensitively written by professionals, in a caring and understanding way and age appropriate, so that in time it will enable people to speak more openly about grief and their feelings.

“This collaborative project, coordinated by the Council’s Psychological Services Teams will make a real difference and we thank all involved for all the great work they do to support our Highland families during difficult times.”

Head of Libraries at High Life Highland, Julie Corcoran, said: “‘High Life Highland welcomes the opportunity to be involved in this collaborative project. By making these books freely available in library buildings and online, we are helping to ensure that all families across the Highlands can have easy access to such important resources.”

Launch events took place at Fortrose and Aviemore Libraries on the 17 November 2025.