Book excerpt: Seths Journey is primarily for ages 5 and up, yet it should attract children of all ages and their parents. Filled with fantasy and adventure, and rich with spiritual overtones and reassurances, it tells the story of a boy who dies at a very young age. In dreamlike, almost mythical terms, the book begins and ends in heaven, with the middle section describing Seths life on earth. Despite handling a topic that could be difficult for children to read about, the book is comforting rather than scary and is stocked with playful characters and gentle humor. Its lyrical mixture of prose and poetry with Seths earth life told in first person and almost entirely in rhyme makes it a wonderful book to read aloud. This book intended to reassure terminally ill children that their death is not an end but part of an endless journey; to explain in words they can understand the meaning and purpose of their short life; and to comfort them with the knowledge that they are loved and protected always by a Higher Spirit. It provides the children the opportunity to asked questions of their hidden fears from the reader. It offers a joyful vision of heaven and shows how being born and dying are just like putting on a different garment for a brand new experience. The book is beneficial reading for all children in that it helps them see dying as part of the universal cycle. And it will benefit many parents by reinforcing their hopes about the hereafter and a divine protective spirit, and by strengthening their belief that their child is now safe.