Confronting the reality of losing a close friend or relative is one of the toughest experiences many people are faced with during their lives.

So imagine how difficult it must be to sensitively explain the death of a parent, family friend, sibling or grandparent to a child while dealing with personal grief too.

This is a situation only too familiar to children’s author Jenny Album, from Golders Green, who was inspired to write her new book, Tell me about Heaven, Grandpa Rabbit!, after explaining the death of a friend to her five-year-old daughter.

“My little girl got very upset when a family friend died,“ says the mother-of-two.

“It was her first experience of death. She found it very confusing and I felt she needed a bit of explanation. Every so often she would bring it up and it was clear it was playing on her mind.”

The former Hendon and Finchley Times feature writer continues: “It is hard for adults who are often grieving themselves to come out with the right words to soothe the child.“

Tell me about Heaven, Grandpa Rabbit! is an uplifting tale about a young rabbit named Bradley who loses his granddad. Before he dies, Grandpa explains the concept of death to Bradley in a way designed to comfort him about the impending and inevitably upsetting change.

Jenny intended to help soothe the distress caused by death with her story, which is why she chose to present the central characters as animals.

She says: “I just thought very carefully and I tried to present a story in a way that a child would be able to absorb easily.“ When writing the book, Jenny drew on her childhood experience of losing her own grandfather.

The influence is felt when Grandpa gives Bradley a shell from his travels, which later comes to act as a reminder for Bradley of their happy relationship. This episode is something which in real life comforted Jenny following her grandfather’s death.

However, the 42-year-old says: “Parents can choose any object that has a specific significance to the person who has died. When you have read the story you can use your own interpretation.“ She adds that the concept of heaven is interchangeable too, from family to family.

“I wanted to make a book that wasn’t religious necessarily, anyone of any religion can get some use from it and adapt it,“ says the author, who published her first children’s book, Bea Gives up her Dummy, in 2013.

She says: “It is their own idea of what heaven might be like. None of us really know, it is up to the parents to guide the child.

“The thing I wanted to promote was that it is a very positive place, also that the person gone is happy and they do not have to worry about that.

“I didn’t want this book to be sad, I wanted it to be quite uplifting and I think it just echoes what all humans would like to believe lies at the end.“

Jenny started her writing career 16 years ago as part of the features team at the Hendon and Finchley Times – an experience she “loved“ – before continuing to work in the press office at Children in Need and then at Barnardo’s children’s charity.

Although she stopped working to have her two children, who are aged three and five, she says her experience in charity press offices influenced her decision to write her latest book.

“I wanted to write books that would help kids through difficult situations,“ she says.

“There are a few other books on the market, but having spoken to people and bookshops they didn’t seem to think that there was anything that suited parents’ needs.“

And the illustrations by Claire Keay, who also created the images for Jenny’s previous Prima Baby magazine award-winning book, help communicate her objectives.

“I loved her pictures and I was desperate to be able to use her,“ says Highgate-born Jenny.

“I think she just did the most amazing job of bringing alive these ideas. I think they are really important, there is a warmth about the images. The relationship between Bradley and his Grandpa, we can really feel it through the pictures.“

Tell me about Heaven, Grandpa Rabbit! has been short-listed for a 2015 Prima Baby Award and Jenny plans to donate copies to bereavement charities.

“I just want a little child who is feeling sad and confused to just feel a bit better about the whole thing,“ says Jenny.

Tell me about Heaven, Grandpa Rabbit! is available to buy at amazon.co.uk