What Can Two Do? One, Two, Grandma Loves You! by Shelley Becker

ONE, TWO, GRANDMA LOVES YOU!

Grandma and her little granddaughter love to be together. They love to do the same things--draw pictures of each other, shop in toy stores, go fishing, and make pancakes, paint pictures, and paint their nails the same colors!

But the visit must end sometime, and when the girl goes back home, Grandma is so alone.

What can they do?

They yak on the phone for hours. They mark their calendars and cross off the days until they can get together again! They mail each other paintings and drawings of things they like to do together, and post the pictures everywhere. And they can't wait to see each other again!

"NINE, TEN, PLAN AGAIN!"

They count the days and think of ways to have fun the next time they are together, and Grandmother and Granddaughter count the ways they can be together, in Shelly Becker's latest, One, Two, Grandma Loves You (Abrams Appleseed, 2021). Author Becker delivers the rhymes and artist Dan Yaccarino provides the comic drawings of the good times, in this easy-to-read, easy-to-love book.

Says School Library Journal's starred review,, "Why does it ever have to end? The details in the illustrations will have children poring over the pages, where the clues to good times past and present add up to a generous look at the special bonds of an extended family."

The Smells of Summer: When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling

 

HOW DO I KNOW SUMMER IS HERE?

Summer everywhere has its own scents--ripening fruit in the middle of the table, sweet-smelling, blooming trees everywhere in the neighborhood. But when Lola comes for her summer visit, there are new smells in the kitchen--like mango preserves that simmer fragrantly on the stove, and unfamiliar smells like the salty smell of dried squid and sweet Filipino milk candy from her open suitcase; the smell of her custard-covered cassava cake in the oven. And while they wait for the flan to get firm, Lola tells them the funny story of how the first time Mom tried to make it, she got the amounts of salt and sugar switched.

When Lola comes, she brings not just old scents, but future memories.

And that summer Lola helps make new ones--the chlorine smell of the pool where the girl first learns to float, the strong seawater smell of swimsuits drying, stiff and salty and sandy, at the beach. The green smell of fresh banana leaves spread on the old wooden table, filled with freshly cooked shrimp and lobster and the acrid smell of fireworks that celebrate the summer holiday, and...

FRESH FISH AND BROWN-SUGARED BANANAS ON THE GRILL.

And then the hot scent of sudden rain sizzling on the steamy tarmac at the airport where they tell Lola goodbye.

But now there are new smells, the smells of fall...

...freshly sharpened pencils to go into the brand-new stiff school bags, but also there are...

THE LAST SWEET BITS OF SUMMER IN LOLA'S JAM.

The memories are mixed with the sweet scents of summer, in Michelle Sterling's just published When Lola Visits (Katherine Tegen Books, 2021).

While everyone will have their own sweet memories of childhood summers--the smells of the inside of the ice cream truck, vanilla and chocolate together, and grape and banana popsicles dripping on the sidewalk, Saturday night barbecues, and squishy flipflops in the bottom of the beach bag--the deep memories of visiting grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins and best friends, all belong with these summer memories. Artist Aaren Asis provides the soft, sheer illustrations that capture the illusive memories of summers past. Says Kirkus, "This is a beautiful, tender expression of family and love that spans generations and great distances. The illustrations add so much life and context to the words."

When You Grow Up! What Will You Be? by Yamile Saied Mendez

"WHAT WILL YOU BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?"

"IT'S NEVER TOO SOON TO DREAM...." SAYS THE GIRL'S ABUELA.

"BUT I DON'T HAVE TO THINK MUCH!!" THE GIRL REPLIES.

She quickly spins out a string of popular preschool wishes--a unicorn, a clown, an astronaut!

But her friends are more practical and ask what possible choices she might really make. Abuela responds that she still doesn't know what she's going to be when she "grows up," and pointing her dripping paintbrush at her granddaughter, pointedly tells the girl that she is the only one who can choose. There are so many things she likes--building and making, so many dreams and stories to tell and draw.

"I'M A WARRIOR WITH MY PEN AND BRUSH!"

She can trace the footsteps of her ancestors. She can follow the untrodden trails that lie before her. She can be a grower of apples, a healer, or a speaker for justice, in Yamile Saied Mendez' latest What Will You Be? (HarperCollins, 2021). It's "Que' sera', sera'," or it's what you yourself make of life for this little girl. Artist Kate Alizadeh's charming little "Dora the Explorer" character stands in for all children who wonder and explore what lies before them in that period of childhood where anything seems possible.

Into the Wild: We Became Jaguars by Dave Eggers

MY GRANDMOTHER CAME TO VISIT. I HAD MET HER ONCE, BUT SHE LIVED FAR AWAY.

HER HAIR WAS WHITE AND VERY, VERY LONG.

But when the boy's parents go out and leave him with his grandmother, she has a strange suggestion. She gets down on all fours on the carpet.

LET'S BE JAGUARS," SHE SAYS.

And as they crawl off the rug, they become jaguars, making their way through the tall grasses to the cul de sac and then into the woods. The boy has been there before, but never as a jaguar. The birds and squirrels flew and ran way when the two jaguars together leap lithely into the branches of a dark tree.

His jaguar grandmother ate a rabbit she caught.

I SAID I WAS ALLERGIC.

WE JAGUARED ON.

The two run sleekly up a mountain and see the world laid out before them. They drink the divine water from a lake and run across the ocean so nimbly that they do not even get their feet wet. They stop to rest somewhere in the Himalayas.

I REMEMBERED I HAD SCHOOL. "I SHOULD GO BACK SOON," I SAID.

And his grandmother drives him to school just in time, in Dave Eggers' brand-new adventure, We Became Jaguars (Chronicle Books, 2021). With Dave Eggers' sybillant storytelling and the beautifully dreamlike mixed media scenes in Woodrow White's illustrations, this is a very different visit from Grandma, to say the least, a fantasy that youngsters will want to relive over and over. Says School Library Journal, "The playfulness isn't restricted to language. White's illustrations are ... sumptuously depicted. . . . . So fantastic it feels real, or so real that it feels fantastic?"

Cross Purposes! I Really Want To See You, Grandma by Taro Gomi

Yumi and her Grandma really love to be together.

One day Yumi decides there is no time like the present.

YUMI REALLY WANTED TO SEE GRANDMA. SHE HEADED OUT HAPPILY.

Yumi picks a yellow tulip for Grandma and catches the bus at the stop down the hill from her house. Meanwhile, Grandma decides she just can't wait to see Yumi. She picks her a basket of apples and takes the train to Yumi's house. But on the way, Yumi's bus goes over the bridge while Grandma's train trundles under the overpass going in the opposite direction.

Grandma arrives at Yumi's house, only to learn from Yumi's mother that Yumi is on her way to her house.

Yumi arrives at Grandma's house, only to learn from Grandpa that Grandma is on her way to Yumi's house.

"OH, NO!"

Grandma hustles back down to the road and hails a taxi to go back to her house. Yumi dashes down to the road, tulip still in hand, and hitches a ride with a farmer heading back toward her house.

But again the two pass each other on the road, going in opposite directions!

Discovering that they've missed each other again, the two don't give up! Yumi hops on her scooter and Grandma jumps on her motorbike!

The third time is the charm, in Taro Gomi's killer-diller readaloud, I Really Want to See You, Grandma (Chronicle Books), as at last the star-crossed two meet each other halfway and share the apples under a friendly tree, agreeing that they've found the perfect place to meet. Veteran children's author-illustrator Gomi paces this story perfectly for youngsters, building suspense as they watch the two unknowingly sail past each other twice on the road. Gomi's illustrations, with the comic gestures of the frantic family, will produce lots of giggles in this jolly comedy of errors tale. Opines The New York Times, "Gomi's witty one-dimensional illustrations drolly complement his storytelling,"