Before We Begin xvii
When I die, will my cat eat my eyeballs? 1
What would happen to an astronaut body in space? 5
Can I keep my parents' skulls after they die? 12
Will my body sit up or speak on its own after I die? 19
We buried my dog in the backyard, what would happen if we dug him up now? 25
Can I preserve my dead body in amber like a prehistoric insect? 30
Why do we turn colors when we die? 37
How does a whole adult fit in a tiny box after cremation? 43
Will I poop when I die? 48
Do conjoined twins always die at the same time? 53
If I died making a stupid face, would it be stuck like that forever? 59
Can we give Grandma a Viking funeral? 64
Why don't animals dig up all the graves? 71
What would happen if you swallowed a bag of popcorn before you died and were cremated? 77
If someone is trying to sell a house, do they have to tell the buyer someone died there? 83
What if they make a mistake and bury me when I'm just in a coma? 89
What would happen if you died on a plane? 97
Do bodies in the cemetery make the water we drink taste bad? 102
I went to the show where dead bodies with no skin play soccer. Can we do that with my body? 109
If someone is eating something when they die, does their body digest that food? 115
Can everybody fit in a casket? What if they're really tall? 120
Can someone donate blood after they die? 127
We eat dead chickens, why not dead people? 133
What happens when a cemetery is full of bodies and you can't add any more? 138
Is it true people see a white light as they're dying? 145
Why don't bugs eat people's bones? 149
What happens when you want to bury someone but the ground is too frozen? 154
Can you describe the smell of a dead body? 161
What happens to soldiers who die far away in battle, or whose bodies are never found? 167
Can I be buried in the same grave as my hamster? 174
Will my hair keep growing in my coffin after I'm buried? 180
Can I use human bones from a cremation as jewelry? 185
Did mummies stink when they were wrapped? 190
At my grandma's wake, she was wrapped in plastic under her blouse. Why would they do that? 197
Acknowledgments 203
Rapid-Fire Death Questions! 205
An Expert Answers: Is My Child Normal? 209
Sources 215