PICTURE BOOK - Ojiichan's Gift by Chieri Uegaki

Illustrated by Genevieve Simms

2019, Kids Can Press (HC $16.99)

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.19 171 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers:solid pale sage

1^st line/s:    "When Mayumi vanHorton was born, her grandfather built her a garden.  It sat behind a tiny brown house nearly half way around the world, and it was unlike any other garden she knew."

My comments:  Every summer North American Mayumi spent two months with her Ojiichan in Japan.  He'd made a garden for her, a sand garden, with rocks, and shrubs to-be pruned, and a rake to make patterns in the sand.  And then Ojiichan gets too feeble to take care of the garden and Mayumi makes a miniature one for Ojiichan to enjoy.  Great themes, lovely story and illustrations.

Goodreads:  When Mayumi was born, her grandfather created a garden for her. It was unlike any other garden she knew. It had no flowers or vegetables. Instead, Ojiichan made it out of stones: ?big ones, little ones and ones in-between.? Every summer, Mayumi visits her grandfather in Japan, and they tend the garden together. Raking the gravel is her favorite part. Afterward, the two of them sit on a bench and enjoy the results of their efforts in happy silence. But then one summer, everything changes. Ojiichan has grown too old to care for his home and the garden. He has to move. Will Mayumi find a way to keep the memory of the garden alive for both of them? 
          This gentle picture book story will warm children's hearts as it explores a deep intergenerational bond and the passing of knowledge from grandparent to grandchild over time. The lyrical text by Chieri Uegaki and luminous watercolor illustrations by Genevieve Simms beautifully capture the emotional arc of the story, from Mayumi's contentment through her anger and disappointment to, finally, her acceptance. The story focuses on an important connection to nature, particularly as a place for quiet reflection. It contains character education lessons on caring, responsibility, perseverance and initiative. It's also a wonderful way to introduce social studies conversations about family, aging and multiculturalism. Mayumi lives in North America with her Japanese mother and Dutch father, and visits her grandfather in Japan. Some Japanese words are included.

PICTURE BOOK - Drawn Together by Minh Le

Illustrated by Dan Santat

2018, Disney/Hyperion

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:   4.30 - 2298 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  Front:  a drawing of grankid's and bak: a drawing of grandpa's.

Front flap:  Sometimes you don't need words to find common ground."

1^st line/s:  Wordless for many pages, then:  "So...what's new, Grandpa?"

My comments:  lmost, but not quite, wordless.  Grandson and Grandad spend time together, but think they have nothing in common and nothing to talk about until..... Grandson pulls out markers and journal and begins to draw himself as a superhero.  Grandfather excitedly retrieves his sketchbook and calligraphy brush to show his line drawings of dragons and slayers!  Common ground...and a new understanding and appreciation of each other.  COOL! Story and drawings are great.

Goodreads:  When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens-with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words.
          With spare, direct text by Minh Lê and luminous illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat, this stirring picturebook about reaching across barriers will be cherished for years to come.

PICTURE BOOK - Ocean Meets Sky by the Fan Brothers

Illustrated by the authors

2018, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

HC #17.99

40  pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.23 - 1814 ratings

My rating: 3.5 

Endpapers:  Animal clouds

Illustrations:  Lovely, best part of the book

1^st line/s:  "Finn lived by the sea,
and the sea lived by him.
"It's a good day for sailing,"
his grandfather would have said."

My comments:  Lovely illustrations, story is a tiny bit vague, but also quite lovely.  I get stymied by little things...how can a very young boy have a 90-year old grandfather?  Might this perhaps have been his great-grandfather...but then would they have been so close?  Silly questions like that bogged me down.  So a second reading was needed and enjoyed.  I'm still not sure why I didn't like the book as much as I expected I would...

Goodreads:  Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. Every time he looks out his window it’s a constant reminder of the stories his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. Where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float.
          Finn’s grandfather is gone now but Finn knows the perfect way to honor him. He’ll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself!
          And when he arrives, maybe, just maybe, he’ll find something he didn’t know he was looking for.

65. Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel by Kimberly Willis Holt

read on my iPhone
2017 Henry Holt & Co.
336 pgs.
MidGrade CRF
Finished 7/19/18
Goodreads rating:  4.13 - 317 rtings
My rating:   5
Setting: contemporary just-outside Dallas, TX ad rural LA

First line/s:  "My name, Stevie Grace, was tattooed inside a giant sun on my dad's back."

My comments:  Definitely another winner by Kimberly Willis Holt!  Though touched throughout with sadness, it isn't a sad story. It's about blooming where you're planted, making the best of everything, seeing the good things there are to see, and learning from the mistakes of your parents and grandparents. And it has a wonderful array of cool characters.  I so enjoyed this story! (By the way, she's actually an eighth grader and says she's thirteen at one point...)

Goodreads synopsis  Twelve-year-old Stevie's world changes drastically when her parents are tragically killed and she is forced to live with her estranged grandfather at his run-down motel. After failed attempts to connect with her grandfather, Stevie befriends the colorful motel tenants and neighbors. Together, they decide to bring some color and life to the motel by planting a flower garden, against Stevie's grandfather's wishes. It will take Stevie's departure before her grandfather realizes just how needed she is by everyone.

PICTURE BOOK - The Great Spruce by John Duvall

Illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

2016, GP Putnams Sons

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.72 (122 ratings)

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  FRONT:  Pineforest green with sprills, bugs, owls, birds, and even a mouse and a snail scattered across the page.
BACK:  Same pine forest green with sprills, but with ornaments instead of fauna.  Clever!

Illustrations

My comments:  I have, in recent years, fretted quite a bit about the huge coniferous tree that has been cut each year to adorn Rockefeller Center at Christmastime.  This well-written book gives a grand message about ecology without being preachy.  Cleverly done, Mr. Duvall!  I loved the illustrations, they reminded me of some of the Golden Books I read as a child.  Not just for Christmas, but for the whole year through.

Goodreads:  Together with his grandpa, a young boy finds a way to save his favorite tree in this heartwarming Christmas tale
           Alec loves to climb trees—the little apple trees, the wide willow trees, even the tall locust trees. But his favorite is the great spruce, with its sturdy trunk and branches that stretch up to the sky. Alec’s grandpa planted it as a sapling years and years before Alec was born, and every Christmas, Alec and his grandpa decorate the tree together, weaving tinsel and lights through its branches, making it shine bright.
           But one day, a few curious men from the nearby city take notice of Alec’s glistening great spruce, and ask to take it away for their Christmas celebration. Though it’s a huge honor, Alec’s heartbroken at the idea of losing his friend. With great courage and creativity, Alec comes up with a plan to save his favorite tree in this joyful holiday tale.

PICTURE BOOK - The Shabbat Puppy - Leslie Kimmelman

Illustrated by Jaime  Zollars
A PJ Library Selection

2012 Marshall Cavendish Children

HC $17.99

32pages

Goodreads rating:

My rating: 3.5

Endpapers: a solid light blue

With dedications, explanation for two of the important, commonly used words:  "In Hebrew, shalom has three meanings:  hello, good-bye, and peace.  Mazel (rhymes with "nozzle") means luck."

Illustrations "rendered in graphite and digital paint."

1^st line:  "Every Saturday morning, Noah and Grampa take a Shabbat walk. 
       'It's the best time,' Grampa explains, 'to find Shabbat Shalom, some Sabbath peace."

My comments:  Since I try to remember to say, "Shabbat shalom" to parents and kids each Friday as they leave school (a Hebrew day school), this book is a nice reminder to me of its true meaning.

Goodreads:  Every Saturday morning Noah and Grampa take a walk, looking for "Shabbat shalom"--Sabbath peace--but Grampa will not let Noah's noisy puppy Mazel come along.

The Walking Stick - Maxine Trottier

Illustrated byAnnouchka Gravel Galouchko

Stoddart Kids, 1998

07737-3101-6

24 pages

Goodreads rating: 2.80

My rating: 3.5

Endpapers :tiny green & lavender squiggles that appear like a field of lavender 

Illustrations Bright, collag-y without being actual collage - lots of tiny dots and squiggles - love 'em!  And her name is pretty darn cool, too....

Artist's dedication:  For those who have the courage to walk a different path, to those who find strength in walking alone, to independent spirits, but especially for Sacha, who was with me throughout this work, and born when it was finished - a beautiful masterpiece. - A.G.G.

1^st line/s:  "When Van was a boy wandering the forest of Vietnma, he found the stick.  It had fallen from a great teak tree."

A young boy's treasured walking stick, made from a teak tree outside the Buddhist temple in a village in Vietnam, watches changes in the country, travels far away, and is returned many years later to its place of origin by the young boy's granddaughter.

15. The Widower's Tale - Julia Glass

Audio read by Mark Bramhall

Ebook through the library (also read the hard copy, back and forth...)

Publishing Info: Pantheon Books, 2010

Pgs.402 pages

Written for adults

Finished: April 21, 2013

Genre: CRF

Goodreads Rating:  3.63 

My Rating: 5 (I ended up loving it)

Setting: Contemporary just-outside-Boston/ suburbs (Cambridge, Boston, just out Rt. 2 from the city, up the coast a little toward Ipswich & Gloucester...)

1^st sentence/s: " 'Why Thank you.  I'm getting in shape to die.'  Those were the first words I spoke aloud on the final Thursday in August of last summer: Thursday, I recall for certain, because it was the day on which I read in our weekly town paper about the first of what I would so blithely come to call the Crusades; the end of the month  I can also say for certain, because Elves & Fairies was scheduled, that very evening, to fling open its brand-new, gloriously purple doors --- formerly the entrance to my beloved barn --- and usher in another flight of tiny perfect children, along with their preened and privileged parents."

My comments: I hated for this book to end as I had become really involved with many of the characters. And there are lots of characters, but it wasn't difficult to keep them straight. Julia Glass' gift for characterization (and beautiful writing) is just splendid. The curmudgeony protagonist is by far the most wonderful voice; humorous, wry, sarcastic, c::ever. His voice dominates the story, but there are three others that we hear; his beloved grandson Robert (a premed student at Harvard), Guatemalan immigrant Celestino (an undocumented gardener/day worker), and preschool teacher Ira (whose gay relationship with a divorce lawyer is interestingly woven into the story). I listened to much (though not all) of this, and the aristocratic lilt that the reader gave to Percy's voice put me off at first. However, as I got to know Percy, it didn't matter. The other three voices were not in this accent, and after awhile I liked the way I could tell the speaker by the way it was read. True, all sorts of socially conscious themes were introduced, but that didn't bother me at all, the story was relevant and interesting. So was the setting, so close to the places that I grew up and still love - the Boston area. I could picture the whole book clearly. Great writing, great story-telling.

Goodreads Review: In a historic farmhouse outside Boston, seventy-year-old Percy Darling is settling happily into retirement: reading novels, watching old movies, and swimming naked in his pond. His routines are disrupted, however, when he is persuaded to let a locally beloved preschool take over his barn. As Percy sees his rural refuge overrun by children, parents, and teachers, he must reexamine the solitary life he has made in the three decades since the sudden death of his wife. No longer can he remain aloof from his community, his two grown daughters, or, to his shock, the precarious joy of falling in love.

One relationship Percy treasures is the bond with his oldest grandchild, Robert, a premed student at Harvard. Robert has long assumed he will follow in the footsteps of his mother, a prominent physician, but he begins to question his ambitions when confronted by a charismatic roommate who preaches—and begins to practice—an extreme form of ecological activism, targeting Boston’s most affluent suburbs.

Meanwhile, two other men become fatefully involved with Percy and Robert: Ira, a gay teacher at the preschool, and Celestino, a Guatemalan gardener who works for Percy’s neighbor, each one striving to overcome a sense of personal exile. Choices made by all four men, as well as by the women around them, collide forcefully on one lovely spring evening, upending everyone’s lives, but none more radically than Percy’s.

With equal parts affection and satire, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale about the loyalties, rivalries, and secrets of a very particular family. Yet again, she plumbs the human heart brilliantly, dramatically, and movingly.

54. Following Grandfather - Rosemary Wells

illustrated by Christopher Denise
2012, Candlewick Press
HC $14.99
58 pages
not really an Early Reader, more of a read aloud, I think....
Goodreads rating:  3.46
cag:  3.5 (the writing is gorgeous, much of the storyline is exquisite, but the premise of her "seeing" her grandfather a couple of times after his death almost seemed thrown in....some changes here would have made it a 5 for me.....

Setting: mid-20th century Boston
First Line/s:  "Down at the very end of Revere Beach, where the people never go, the mice of Boston spread their towels and plant their beach umbrellas in the sun.  Grandfather and I were among them every summer Sunday."

Ah, the snobbish Henry Cabot Lodge and Saltonstall mice, the Swan boats and other Boston locales, the truly lovely writing....just wonderful.  Yummy vocabulary, some even unknown to me (which isn't saying much, believe me)....ummmm, crenallated?  What a cool word.  However, this is a simple book written in large font, looking like the perfect book for an early reader.  Wrong.  This is one to be read aloud.  I'm going to do just that to my fourth graders and will add comments afterwards.

Pablo's Tree - Pat Mora

Illustrated by Cecily Lang
$17.95 HC
1994, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
32 pages
Endpapers:  red
Illustrations:  Cut paper
Goodreads rating:  3.68
I liked it - nice story.

When his daughter adopts a tiny baby boy, his grandfather/abuelito plants a tree.  Every year he decorates it, as a surprise, in a different, colorful way.  Pablo and his namesake spend the day after his birthday playing under the tree.  They reminisce about the different years and we see how much the tree has grown.

Seven for a Secret - Laurence Anholt

Illustrated by Jim Coplestone
Frances Lincoln Children's Books (London), 2006
24 pages (the last two open out to a quadruple page)
Rating: 4
Front endpapers: Scenes from the city
Back endpapers: Scenes from the country (both include a mail deliverer on a bicycle

This lovely story is told entirely in letters sent back and forth between a child in the city and her grandfather in the country. It is also based on a poem/saying called "The Magpie Song," of which I am unfamiliar. Perhaps it is British, as this book seems to be...

1 for Sorrow,
2 for Joy,
3 gor a Girl,
4 for a Boy,
5 for Silver,
6 for Gold,
7 for a Secret never to be told.

The girl's father worries about money, especially with a new baby on the way, and you can see that the grandfather's health is deteriorating. Eventually, Ruby frets because she hasn't heard from her grandfather. At the end of the book, you see Ruby and her family living happily in the grandfather's country home - without him. There's also a secret (#7 of the poem) that is answered at the very end.

This is a story for kids to figure out. It is a gentle way to discuss and/or show the end of life, especially of a loved one. Good book. Lovely, with the letters superimposed atop the illustrations that completely cover the pages.