Whether or not we have a real animal friend in our lives, stories with animal characters can bring powerful growth and healing. This is true for all of us, and especially for children. My friend Natalie Bernstein, a school librarian, says children are more likely to see themselves in a story when the characters are animals. She writes, “Most children are curious about and fond of animals, making them a natural empathetic set of characters with which to identify. I often hear a child respond to an illustration, exclaiming ‘I’m that one!’”

When I served as a religious educator in a congregation, parents frequently asked me for resources to help them talk with children about death. There is one story I always recommended first: Badger’s Parting Gifts, by Susan Varley, in which Old Badger dies, and his friends gather to share their memories of things Badger taught each of them, his “parting gifts.”

About ten years ago, I was approached by a young mother who was dying from breast cancer. She asked me to help plan her memorial service. She wanted to make it, in her words, “kid-friendly.” When I read Badger’s Parting Gifts to her, Becky loved the story and wanted the book read during the memorial service. She definitely wanted to approve the eulogy—as she said, it was the last thing she had control over. I was having a great deal of difficulty knowing what to write. Becky suggested I use the story as a starting point. With that, I was able to shape the eulogy around her many “parting gifts” to family and friends.

One day, shortly before her death, I sat with Becky, her husband Bert, and her three sisters as they shared stories of a lifetime. We laughed and cried as we talked about Becky’s parting gifts. I heard stories of Becky the adventurer, Becky the irrepressible, Becky the world traveler, Becky the teacher, Becky the artist, Becky the lover of books, and Becky the mother. At one point Becky said, “This is going to be a great service. I wish I could be there.” And in fact, Becky was.