Children’s Library: A Reflective Summer
July 26, 2011, Epoch Times
Featuring the simple gifts of a grandchild-grandparent relationship
Summertime, ideally, is an opportunity for children to slow down, explore their environments, spend time with their family, take in each moment, and just be children.
Author Josephine Nobisso beautifully captures the essence of the unhurried joys of summer in two books depicting the warmhearted relationship between a grandchild and grandparent.
“Grandpa Loved” and “Grandma’s Scrapbook” celebrate the time spent engaged in such quality pursuits as naming the stars that appear in the night sky, frolicking in the ocean waves, singing songs around a piano after dinner, listening to the stories of a stranger, and calmly observing woodland animals.
Each book features the sublime scenes of illustrator Maureen Hyde and is narrated by the grandchild who fondly recalls wonderful memories of his and her grandparent, respectively.
In “Grandpa Loved,” a young boy begins: “Grandpa loved to stand on the beach. He showed me how to love it, too.” His grandpa also loved “the woods behind the summer house”; the city, a place where he can listen to “any lost and lonely person tell … a life’s story”; and of course, his family.
In “Grandma’s Scrapbook,” a young girl looks back on the summers spent with her grandmother, beginning from when she was a baby. She recalls biking to the beach; shopping for souvenirs; picking flowers for the dinner table; and looking through Grandma’s scrapbook, recollecting the memories they were chronicling within its pages.
These rich, touching stories portray the wisdom in appreciating nature, family, and life’s simplest pleasures and, perhaps, the unique ability of the oldest and youngest of people to grasp this fully.
Though somewhat heavy in tone, as each child is looking back on their loved one who has passed on, Nobisso’s two books are inspiring reads for both the children they were intended for and the adults who can share them.
Touching, thoughtful, and uplifting, Nobisso’s “Grandpa Loved” and “Grandma’s Scrapbook” deserve special placement on the top shelf.
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