The year in grandparents
The best stories from my site and beyond in 2019.
6 new novels about kids and their grandparents
In these recent novels for preteens—by some of the best children’s authors of our time—grandparents give kids the inspiration, strength, and love they need to navigate a perilous world.
“Do your best every day!”
The grandmas and grandpas at Garden View Assisted Living in Carroll, Iowa have lots of back-to-school advice for kids. Recently, they posted it on Facebook.
At this South Korean school, children and their grandmas learn together
Faced with declining enrollment, an elementary school in rural South Korea is welcoming grandmothers, many of whom were not permitted to attend school when they were girls.
I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting. It does not hurt them to read about good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Nor do I think they should read only about things that they understand. ‘A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.’ So should a child’s … I will never talk down to—or draw down to—children.
Barbara Cooney (1917-2000)
What do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
I asked grandparents around the country what they wish they’d known—but didn’t—when their first grandchild was born. Here are some of my favorite responses.
The best picture books about kids and their grandparents
These books aren’t just stunningly written and illustrated. They also perceptively observe the complexities of the new American family.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: A grandpa’s very tall tale
This picture book celebrates both the bond between kids and their grandparents and the transcendent power of a story well told.
The very best books about the very best season
For kids, summer means freedom. These books beautifully capture that.
Boys, grandparents, and “the best week ever”
A picture book about what happens when parents get out of the way.
The best picture books about spring
I spent the final weeks of winter reading all the picture books I could find about spring. Here are my favorites. They’re simple, they’re deep, and they’re as gorgeous as the season.
How Miss Rumphius made the world more beautiful
In this extraordinary picture book, a girl’s grandfather inspires her to live well and do good.
“I think I know my grandfather now”
As a boy, Allen Say barely knew his grandpa. As a man, he came to understand him. That’s why he created Grandfather’s Journey, a picture book for which he won the Caldecott Medal in 1994.