Review by Booklist Review
While searching forlornly, a small boy repeats, "Grandpa is gone." He is not in the kitchen, nor at the "Royal Nasa" (wool) shop where he works as a tailor. Although the child looks everywhere, he can only find Grandpa's scarf. Clues in the illustrations depict Grandpa sewing in the clouds, illuminated by the moon and the stars. As the two stand on separate glowing orbs in space, the child says, "He must have come from some place far, far away. Some place beyond the night sky and across the universe." In the concluding double-page spread, the child envisions Grandpa as a tailor in that other place, surrounded by whimsical planetary objects consisting of giant buttons and thread, and floating through a black, star-studded sky. Illustrations in colored pencils by Korean artist Seung-yeon consist of playful drawings using soft, light lines. The muted, spare palette and text convey an emotional connection, while the grays and browns echo the sadness of loss. A moving tribute to intergenerational love that's helpful for young children just learning about death.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This deceptively spare picture book follows a dark-haired, pale-skinned child's plaintive first-person perspective as they come to terms with the loss of their grandfather. Deftly utilizing the refrain "Grandpa is gone," Lee effectively conveys the disbelief and sorrow of the family, spotlighting what Grandpa has left behind--his shoes, his tailor shop, his friends at the fountain--in simple prose: "The man from the stationery store/ drops off Grandpa's name stamp./ He asks why Grandpa hasn't picked it up." Kim's finely detailed, subtly textured art, rendered in a muted palette, alternates between close-ups of Grandpa's personal effects and shots of the dot-eyed family amid plenty of empty space, reflecting the family's grief. And scenes of Grandpa and his shop culminate in a space-themed fold-out spread in which Grandpa's belongings become part of the very cosmos. With the metaphysical ending drawing a through line from Grandpa's physical presence to something beyond, this sensitively told narrative will resonate long after the final page turn. Ages 6--8. (Aug.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2--A young boy finds that "Grandpa went away." Though his shoes are in the closet, his work is still waiting (a close-up illustration reveals the tools of his trade as a tailor), and acquaintances ask how Grandpa is doing, there are only poignant reminders instead of explanations of where or why the grandfather is gone. "I mean, he always tapped me on the head with his fist when I didn't say goodbye properly." As the boy struggles to understand his absence, he falls asleep in his grandfather's shop and dreams of him at work in a surreally illustrated night space amidst floating buttons, a moon draped in thread, a floating shoe and hat. He awakens to conclude that his grandfather is "someplace beyond the night sky and across the universe." Matte, two-dimensional illustrations in a muted color palette dominated by black, gray, and shades of brown reinforce the theme of melancholy and mourning. The abrupt ending and the perfunctory sentence structure may have suffered in translation. There is a confusing transition when the sentence "he must have come from some place far, far away" is immediately preceded by the phrase repeated throughout, that the grandfather is gone. VERDICT While a young boy grapples very literally with the absence of his grandfather, the abstract representation of death may raise more questions than answers.--Ramarie Beaver, formerly at Plano P.L., TX
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Review by Horn Book Review
A young child wonders where his beloved grandpa has gone. "His shoes sit in the closet, waiting to be worn...He isn't here to wake me up, or rub his stubbly chin against my cheek." Readers may understand that the grandfather has died ("Grandma keeps rubbing my back...I eat everything without complaining. If I didn't, I think she would cry"), but the child eventually decides that Grandpa likely has returned to the place he came from: "a place across the universe, full of dazzling stars." He was a tailor, and in the concluding scene, with a well-positioned gatefold, Seung-youn's subdued earth-tone illustrations weave together motifs from Grandpa's life with those of space. The flat black of the night sky is scattered with button stars, for example; and is Grandpa standing on a ball of thread or a planet of his own? With its refrain "Grandpa is gone," the beautifully paced text gradually adds layers to the protagonist's understanding of this enormous loss. An affecting portrait of the deep feelings and confusion of a child mourning the absence of a loved one. Maeve Visser Knoth November/December 2021 p.76(c) Copyright 2021. 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
A child loses a grandparent, mourns the absence, and constructs a story about where that grandparent may be. "One day, / Grandpa is gone," opens this Korean import, told in a direct, forthcoming voice. With "Grandpa is gone" as a stark repeated refrain, the grieving grandchild chronicles the absence: Grandpa's shoes are still in the closet, "waiting to be worn"; he's not there to pick up his name stamp from the stationery store; and everyone asks about him. Why, the child wonders, would Grandpa leave so suddenly, without any goodbyes? But as readers learn about the loss, intermittent spreads reveal an imagined destination for Grandpa: his own planet, complete with the tailoring shop he had during his life. The double gatefold that closes the book reveals even more details, the child speculating that perhaps Grandpa now lives in this place "full of dazzling stars." In this fantastical place, the beloved objects of Grandpa's world walk on feet or fly through space; a button hangs in the sky like a planet; and a pincushion serves as a moon. The book's plainspoken, authentically childlike observations are poignant in their restraint: At one point, the child, wrapped in Grandpa's jacket, breathes in his scent, repeating (and seeming to finally accept) that "Grandpa is gone." The striking dust jacket illustration reveals grandchild (cover) and grandparent (back cover) standing on balls of thread or yarn, doubling as planets, that connect them in the vastness of space. Tender and touching. (Picture book. 5-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
