Review by New York Times Review
NEEDLESS TO SAY, small children won't be reading this review. It is aimed squarely at the grown-ups who buy picture books, borrow them, give them as gifts and read them aloud to children. Of all these transactions - buying, borrowing, giving and reading aloud - the one that really counts is the last. Reading a book to a small child can create a connection of exquisite intimacy, with the book itself as a vital point of contact. The quality of such a book is inextricably linked to the quality of that interaction. Such thoughts are stirred by these four new picture books featuring a loving relationship between a child and a grandparent. Leafing through each of these books, one tends to step outside the story and imagine it being read by grandparent to child. The fact that the two parties in this imagined scenario are in the earliest and latest chapters of their lives lends each book more than the usual measure of emotion. I REALLY WANT TO SEE YOU, GRANDMA (CHRONICLE, 40 PR, $18.99; AGES 3 TO 6), Written and illustrated by Taro Gomi, was first published in Japan in 1979. Here it is, almost 40 years later, with its spare text translated into English. It hasn't aged a bit. The book tells the simple story of an old woman and her granddaughter, who set off at the same time to visit each other across a broad valley. Using several modes of transportation, they twice miss each other en route but finally meet halfway for a happy picnic under a tree. The humor of this trifling anecdote is uncannily pitched to 3- to 6-year-olds, and Gomi's witty one-dimensional illustrations drolly complement his storytelling. A mom, a grandpa, a cabby, a cat, a rampant goat and a face-licking cow expand the lively cast of characters without ever being mentioned in the text. And what fun to see Granny on a motorcycle! The author Minh Le and the illustrator Dan Santat have teamed up for drawn together (HYPERION, 32 PR, $17.99; AGES 4 TO 8), another book whose pictures give an extra measure of help telling the story. This time a young Thai-American boy is dropped off to visit his grandfather. The two sit in awkward silence, separated by their gaping age difference and by an impenetrable language barrier (the old man's dialogue is even scribbled in Thai). Not even a Southeast Asian action video engages the interest of the hapless lad. But when he idly plucks art supplies from his backpack, he and his granddad discover a shared enthusiasm for drawing action figures. At this point Santat's staid, prosaic images explode into garish, kinetic life as the two create a comicbook epic featuring a ferocious dragon and two embattled heroes modeled on themselves. The heavily symbolic epic, it must be said, makes little sense to this particular grandfather, but it is charged with visual drama. The story ends with the old man and his grandson in each other's arms, brought together by wordless affection and the power of their shared imagination. This touching lesson in empathy and family love may resonate more with a grown-up reader than a child (no child ever spoke the sentence "my grandfather surprised me by revealing a world beyond words"). Still, the book's heart is firmly in the right place, and Santat's illustrations of both the real-life and fantasy worlds of the two main characters are beautifully rendered. Another book also bears the weight of a grown-up message, but this one carries it a bit more gracefully. This is ocean meets SKY (SIMON &SCHUSTER, 48 PR, $17.99; AGES 4 to 8), by the Fan Brothers. Sharing the roles of both author and illustrator, these two brothers have taken on the daunting challenge of introducing children to the grave fact of death. The central character in the book is a boy named Finn who lives in a house by the sea. With the gentle device of a verb tense, the authors reveal that Finn's fisherman grandfather has recently died (he "would have been 90 years old today"). The impact of his absence is suggested by an empty chair in a darkened office. The room is cluttered with the old man's books, tools and bric-a-brac, objects that fill Finn's mind with fragmented memories of him. "To honor him," Finn builds a boat on the beach, using found objects and detritus. Exhausted from his labors, he naps inside his rickety craft and, in a fantastical dream that recalls such books as "Where the Wild Things Are," he sails it out to sea. From this point on, the book's lovely, muted illustrations depict a world of melancholy magic. We see a giant golden fish, islands made of books and seashells, a "sea of moon jellies dancing." Everywhere there are little reminders of Finn's grandfather, all of them traceable to the objects in that ghostly office. A kind of spirit guide finally appears in the shape of an enormous blue whale, leading Finn through a misty universe of floating and flying memories. Finn's mother awakens him near the end of the book. As he stands alone on the beach and takes one last look at moon and sky, he appears to contemplate for the very first time the mysteries of life and death. This is moving stuff for a grown-up, though it may be pretty heady fare for a lot of kids. Of these four fine books, the real gem is TINY, PERFECT THINGS (COMPENDIUM, 32 PP $16.95; ages 3 to 7), written by M. H. Clark and illustrated by Madeleine Kloepper, whose first name triggers associations with Ludwig Bemelmans, who may well be her stylistic muse. There's really no story here at all. On the first page we see an old man and his rambunctious granddaughter strolling the sunny sidewalks and leafy yards of a small town. The text begins with a disarmingly simple statement: "Today we keep our eyes open for tiny, perfect things." Each ensuing sentence has the same deadpan straightforwardness, peppered with a few fun, fractured rhymes. Grandpa and grandchild chronicle everything they find: leaf, snail, apple, crow, spider's web, bottle cap. The verdant flora in Kloepper's illustrations teems with hidden insects, birds and neighborhood pets. All of them reappear in a crowded twopage panoply toward the end of the book, setting the stage for a delightful game between old reader and young listener: "How many perfect things can you find?" As night falls, grandfather and grandchild return to the warm, welcoming interior of a clapboard house. Here we meet the girl's parents. Mom, who is white, hugs her daughter; Dad, who is brown-skinned, serves up supper; Grandpa settles into a comfy chair. The scene sends off several signals that might seem too distinctly politically correct (besides tweaking gender stereotypes the family is racially mixed), but it does so with such unforced sweetness that its familiar sentiments simply warm the heart. You can almost hear the sighs of contentment from a doting grandparent and happy child. JOHN LITHGOW, the actor and musician, is the author of nine children's picture books, most recently "Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 17, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
Yumi's home is on a hilltop, and her grandmother lives on a nearby mountain. One day, Yumi decides to visit Grandma. She boards the bus to Grandma's house. Meanwhile, Grandma decides to visit Yumi. She boards a train to Yumi's house. When Yumi arrives, Grandma is gone. When Grandma arrives, Yumi is gone. Oh no! Each immediately goes home, only to find that the other has left. Oh no! Now Yumi rides back on her scooter, and Grandma rides back on her motorcycle until they meet along the road. Joy! Simply told, the parallel story creates increasing tension as the characters are foiled and foiled again. Gomi turns an unpretentious concept into a satisfying picture book. With many landscapes and road scenes, the paintings make good use of the book's horizontal format, sometimes showing the two main characters simultaneously as they travel back and forth. The deep, rich colors show up well against the white sky, which serves as a background for the text. Children and adults alike will smile at the happy ending.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Japanese author-illustrator Gomi (Bus Stops) imagines a transportation mix-up in which two journeys intersect in fun and serendipitous ways. Yumi lives on a hilltop, and Grandma lives across town, on a mountaintop. Impulsively, they both set out to visit each other on the same day. Yumi's bus drives over the bridge just as Grandma's train travels underneath it. Arriving at their destinations, they immediately discover their crossed paths. "Oh, no!" Yumi cries. But they meet, eventually, in the middle. The book's short, wide trim size contributes plenty of space for the landscapes to unfold, and Gomi's saturated colors have jewel-like tones; the richly textured watercolor washes in simple shapes have the soft look of fabric. There's gentle comedy in the big, obvious gestures of the neighbors who help explain the situation to Yumi and Grandma, and the different forms of transportation add interest. Unspoken, but also gratifying, is the idea of a place in which a small child can set out alone to see her Grandma in perfect safety. Ages 3-5. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-In this simple comedy of errors, a little girl and her grandma both decide to pay each other a visit on the very same day. Yumi takes a bus, and Grandma takes a train. Careful observers will note that just as the train travels under the bridge, Yumi's bus travels over it. "Oh, no!" cries Grandma upon arriving at Yumi's house and learning that her granddaughter has gone to see her. The little girl is equally "surprised," and they both hurry back to their respective homes. Grandma hails a taxi while Yumi shares a ride with a cow on a truck only to find that they have once again missed each other. Eventually, they meet under a large tree, jump gleefully into each other's arms, and agree that next time, they will meet in this very spot. This simple tale of mixed-up connections celebrates the special love between a grandparent and grandchild. Young readers will experience the pair's urgency, frustration, and joy as all's well that ends well. Gomi's signature art features childlike characters in a palette of browns highlighted by pink, orange, and other hints of color on a white background. The front endpapers feature Yumi's scooter; the back, Grandma's motorbike. VERDICT A perfect choice for units on transportation or family or to share on Grandparents' Day.-Barbara Auerbach, formerly at New York City Public Schools © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Here is a sweet and funny picture book (first published forty years ago in Japan) about missed connections, determination, and intergenerational devotion. Yumis house is on a hill. It has a pink roof. Grandmas house is on a mountain. It has an orange roof. The opening double-page spread sets the scene, with Yumis house on the very left of the spread and Grandmas on the far right edge. (Gomi uses a wide, long landscape trim size and, indeed, the picture-book form to great effect throughout.) One day, girl and grandmother impulsively set out to see the other, but they keep passing each other as they travel in opposite directions. Every time they discover that theyve missed each other, they become more and more determined to meet, and their various modes of transportation become progressively more adventurous (and, not coincidentally, child appealing). First, the usual bus and train; then a boldly hailed cab and an unexpected lift in a truck carrying a cow (who licks Yumis face at the critical passing-Grandma moment, obscuring her view); and finally a scooter and a motorbike. At last, to their great joy (Grandma! Yumi!), they meet in the exact middle of their two houses and happily picnic together under a tree. Warm colors draw viewers in to enjoy all the action and situational humor, while the repetition in the brief but extremely effective text makes it work for both very young listeners and newly independent readers. Another gem from picture-book master Gomi, now fortunately available to English-speaking readers and listeners. martha v. Parravano (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Yumi and Grandma leave their separate houses to see each other at the same time, but they keep missing each other in this book first published in Japan in 1979 but only now being published in the United States.Yumi decides she wants to visit Grandma at the same time Grandma decides to go see Yumi. They both leave their respective homes happy. While Yumi takes a bus alone, Grandma takes a train. When they arrive at their destinations, they realize their mix-up and head back to their homes. Yumi gets a ride in a truck with an adult and a cow, while Grandma takes a taxi. After missing each other again, Yumi takes a scooter and Grandma rides a motorcycle. They finally spot each other and decide to meet under a big tree. Gomi's illustrations tell many details the text does not, placing Yumi's home in a suburb and Grandma's in a mountainous countryside. The simple backgrounds, painted in tans and browns, allow the characters (both brown-skinned) and modes of transportation to stand out on the page. The faces are simple, done in Gomi's trademark style, but the emotions are conveyed clearly and add to both humor and meaning. American readers may be taken aback when they realize that Yumi travels alone on the bus, in a truck with an unidentified adult, and on her scooter, an independence that may be less remarkable in the author/illustrator's Japanese culture.A book of warmhearted mix-ups, good for learning types of transportation and emotions. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
