Anna's Corn by Barbara Santucci

Illustrated by Lloyd Bloom. 32 p., Eerdmans, 2002. Shared experience can be both a metaphor for loss and a way to move through the loss. in this story, set in the context of a farming family, Anna's Grandpa teaches her about the music that the corn makes in the fields - music that sounds to Anna just like Grandpa. Almost as if to commemorate the experience, he gives her kernels of corn to plant the next year. During the winter, Grandpa dies, and Anna misses him terribly. The corn seeds feel hard, just as she feels hard inside. She tells her mother that she doesn't plant them because she likes them as they am, and besides, if she buries them, like Grandpa, they'll be gone forever. But her mother reminds her that she won't hear the music in them unless she plants them. With this encouragement, she eventually does. True to her mother's word, the corn grows, and Anna hears its music. Anna saves some of these seeds to plant the following year. This story is illustrated with gently-colored pencil and pastel drawings. Rich in metaphor, it offers both empathy and hope to children who have lost someone close. Ages 4-9