Kindergarten-Grade 2– Although Leah enjoys shopping and cooking with her grandmother the way she always has, the child is afraid to look at her recently deceased grandfather’s picture or sit in his chair. That night, she runs to her grandmother and cries, “. . . Gramm, I don’t want you to die!” The woman reassures her that she will live a long life, but also acknowledges her granddaughter’s feelings. Leah’s difficulty in facing her loss and feelings of relief at finally talking about it ring true, and the reassuring ending (she falls asleep in Gramm’s bed, “halfway between Gramm’s warmth and Poppy’s smile”) is satisfying. Pastel drawings in shades of pink and blue are realistic and warm, although the figures are stiffly posed. Young children may be confused at first, since the fact that Leah’s grandfather has died is not mentioned until halfway through the story. The situation is reminiscent of Mavis Jukes’s Blackberries in the Dark (Knopf, 1993) and joins Aliki’s The Two of Them (Greenwillow, 1979) and Charlotte Zolotow’s My Grandson Lew (HarperCollins, 1974) on the ever-growing shelf of children’s books discussing the death of a grandparent. –Caroline Parr, Central Rappahannock Regional Library, Fredericksburg, VA
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