Finding Jingga and Other Stories:  Creating Children’s Picture Books Exploring Disenfranchised Grief

Helen Hodiono; Stefanny Irawan

doi:10.9744/katakita.11.3.353-359

Finding Jingga and Other Stories: Creating Children’s Picture Books Exploring Disenfranchised Grief

Helen Hodiono^(1*), Stefanny Irawan⁽²⁾,

(1) Petra Christian University
(2) Petra Christian University
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This paper revolves around disenfranchised grief in children. Disenfranchised grief refers to a loss that is not acknowledged, not socially accepted, and not discussed in public which makes people think that they have no right to grieve that loss. With children’s picture books as the chosen creative form and adventure as the chosen genre, this paper presents what causes children to grieve and how they process this grief. The stories depict Putra, Gwen, Daniel, Deborah, and Gabriel experiencing disenfranchised grief because their attachment to people or things they care about is broken, regardless of how trivial it is. Onward, they process grief by going through John Bowlby and Colin Murray Parkes’s four phases of grieving namely numbness, yearning and searching, disorganization, and re-organization to seize acceptance.

Keywords

acceptance, adventure, attachment, children’s picture book, disenfranchised grief, four phases of grieving, John Bowlby

Full Text:

PDF

References

Doka, K. J. (2017). Grief is a journey: Finding your path through loss. Simon & Schuster.

Fortuna, K., Baor, L., Israel, S., Abadi, A., & Knafo, A. (2014). Attachment to inanimate objects and early childcare: A twin study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(486). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00486

Fraley, R. C., & Shaver, P. R. (2018). Attachment, loss, and grief. In Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. R. (2018). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (3rd ed.) (pp. 40-62). Guilford Publications.

Gabillet, A. (2020, April 16). Why your kid wants to cuddle with her toothbrush. The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/parenting/children-bed-toothbrush-lamp.html

Harris, D. L. (2020). Non-death loss and grief: Laying the foundation. In Harris, D. L. (2020). Non-death loss and grief: Context and clinical implications (pp. 7-16). Routledge.

Klass, D. (1988). John Bowlby’s model of grief and the problem of identification. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 18(1), 13–32. https://doi.org/10.2190/63pm-gef7-3p13-473d

Lenhardt, A. M. C. (1997). Disenfranchised grief/hidden sorrow: Implication for the school counselor. The School Counselor, 44(4), 264-270. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23897926

Malatesta, M. (2019, May 19). Adventure genre definition - Complete list of book genres. Book Genres. https://book-genres.com/adventure-genre-definition/

Mallon, B. (2008). Dying, death and grief: Working with adult bereavement. SAGE.

Martell, M. M. (2011). Bereavement and loss: Using Bowlby’s grief stages to analyze books for preschool children. [Master’s thesis, University of Akron]. OhioLink. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=akron1320799352

McMurdie, D. (n.d.). How books can help parents tackle tough topics with kids. Brightly. https://www.readbrightly.com/books-tackle-tough-topics-with-kids/

Paul, A. W. (2018). Writing picture books revised and expanded edition: A hands-on guide from story creation to publication. Penguin.

Vasquez, A. (2021, December 10). What are Bowlby and Parkes’s four stages of grief? | Cake blog. Cake: Create a Free End of Life Plan. https://www.joincake.com/blog/four-stages-of-grief/

Worden, J. W. (2018). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner (5th ed.). Springer Publishing Company.

Yamaguchi, M., & Moriguchi, Y. (2020). Developmental change in attachment objects during childhood. Early child Development and Care, 192(7), 1119-1132. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1841756

DOI: https://doi.org/10.9744/katakita.11.3.353-359