STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT DEATH FOR TEENAGERS

An insightful theologian/grief expert (``the cure for grief is to grieve'') opens with Terry Kettering's attention-grabbing poem, ``The Elephant in the Room.'' Teens' grief—like, Grollman suggests, the huge (but unobserved) elephant—is often overlooked or minimized. Addressing this gap, he presents just a few on- target, incisive lines on each page—to be read, like poetry, with deliberation—on topics such as ``the first days after a death'' and ``facing your future.'' The occasional humor is not inappropriate (``Why is there a special relationship between grandparents and grandchildren? They have a common enemy—the parent''); but the treatment of special relationships and circumstances suffers from Grollman's brevity. He acknowledges that it's normal to feel that one's own grief is the worst; some teens will be disappointed not to find their particular situation treated more fully. Still, all are likely to find consolation in the book as a whole, and in completing (in the concluding workbook pages) statements like ``The last thing I did with you was...'' and ``What scares me the most is...'' (Nonfiction. 12+)