The Afterwards is an interpretation of what happens after death. It is an eerie, spooky, ghost-like story. There are colored illustrations throughout the book by Emily Gravett, a well-known picture book illustrator and author. A.F. Harrold does a great job of accurately describing the feelings one experiences at the loss of someone in an age appropriate manner. Beyond the grieving process, this book addresses the love we feel for those in our lives. It makes the reader think about why things happen and at what cost would we change them.

This book covers a lot of different types of grieving:  parental death, spousal death, friend death, pet death, loss of normalcy, etc. It describes a ‘what if’ situation of being able to see those who have passed on. It is a story that makes you think about how important the ‘now’ is and how far you would go for someone you loved.

Review of an Advance Reading Copy provided by the Publisher

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  Report of death; report of parental death; minor threw football at a dog; minor fell off of swing, hit head, went into coma, and died; dog hit by car – died; imagery of a character ‘as if he had been punched a knock-out blow by a huge boxer’; threat of relative; relative trades minor for own profit; memory of minors pretending to be fighter pilots shooting each other down; report of woman falling down stairs and dying; death of minor; smashed windows; a few references to pain caused to dead by living touching them; ghost held human physically captive against a wall.

Sex/Nudity:  A few reports of adults kissing.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death, paranormal, grieving process, kidnapping and exchanging of minor.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Reference to an adult possibly being drunk.