A welcome addition to children’s literature about death and dying.
In this children’s picture book, a special bond between young Lily and her great-grandmother helps them through the elderly woman’s time at a hospice residence.
This story starts by explaining the main characters’ unusual names for each other. Lily’s great-grandmother is called “GG” for short, a fact that the book awkwardly explains by having the girl say, “I forget—why do we call you that?” When Lily asks about her own pet name, GG says mysteriously, “I call you Mamela, because you are close to my heart.” (It likely comes from the Yiddish word for “little girl”—literally, “little mother.”) Lily sums up, “You’re my GG and I’m you’re Mamela,” and GG answers, “And that’s the way it will always be,” setting up a refrain that repeats a bit too often throughout the text. Next, Lily visits GG’s apartment and learns how to make chicken soup with GG’s secret ingredient. In this part, the simple but emotionally resonant illustrations show GG looking hale and hearty, but “[a]fter dinner, GG felt tired,” which provides the only inkling of what’s to come. Readers may not be fully prepared when, “a few days later,” Lily’s father gently breaks the news that GG is dying. Lily responds by telling him that GG is at the top of a family tree she made in school; that night, she has a bad dream about GG falling off that family tree, which gives the book a nice, true-to-life touch. When Lily’s parents take her to the hospice residence, GG is in a wheelchair and suddenly looks much older. “You look…tired. Are you okay?” Lily asks. The next day, GG and Lily snuggle together while listening to a harpist play. The book pairs an ethereal illustration with lyrical text (“Ariel’s music wrapped around them just like GG’s rainbow afghan”), which truly captures the healing, transporting power of music in this setting. Shortly after making GG’s chicken soup with her father, Lily goes for a last visit and poignantly whispers in GG’s ear, “You are my Mamela. Because I love you with all my heart.”
A welcome addition to children’s literature about death and dying.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0989930901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lamb Press
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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