Grandpa Green [Hardcover]

Product Description

From the creator of the national bestseller It's a Book comes a timeless story of family history, legacy, and love.

 

Grandpa Green wasn't always a gardener. He was a farmboy and a kid with chickenpox and a soldier and, most of all, an artist. In this captivating new picture book, readers follow Grandpa Green's great-grandson into a garden he created, a fantastic world where memories are handed down in the fanciful shapes of topiary trees and imagination recreates things forgotten.

 

In his most enigmatic and beautiful work to date, Lane Smith explores aging, memory, and the bonds of family history and love; by turns touching and whimsical, it's a stunning picture book that parents and grandparents will be sharing with children for years to come.

Review

"An unassuming little masterpiece…the book’s power lies in its rich, allusive artistry.” --New York Times Book Review

 

“It's a rare glimpse into Smith's softer side--as skillful as his more sly offerings, but crafted with honesty and heart.” --Publishers Weekly Starred Review

 

"Visually intriguing and emotionally resonant, this is a book to pore over and talk about. With each subsequent reading, it offers new layers of meaning and visual connections."–School Library Journal Starred Review

“Opening this book is like opening a gate to a secret garden, filled with the treasures of a life well lived. In his portrait of a boy who adores and honors his forgetful great-grandfather, Smith shows us that the things that are meaningful to the ones we love become part of our garden, too.” —Shelf Awareness

“Though this book has lots of adult appeal, it will also be a wonderful bridge to exploring family history with the very young.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Sketched with a finely lined fairy-tale wispiness and dominated by verdant green, the illustrations are not just creative but poignant.” —Booklist

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This review is from: Grandpa Green (Hardcover)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program 

Multi-award winning author and illustrator Lane Smith has hit another one out-of-the-park, or in this case garden. From the very first page, young and old alike will be drawn into the whimsical garden of `Grandpa Green". Told through the eyes of Grandpa Green's great-grandkid, each page tells a piece of Grandpa Green's life via the visual world of his topiary trees, and a few perfectly captured words.

The illustrations are done in a subtle palette of green with light touches of yellow, blue and grey, reminiscent of Margaret Bloy Graham's classic illustrations in Gene Zion's `Harry the Dirty Dog' series. Each page provides a biographic fact from Grandpa Green's life; but what makes this tale so delightful is the symbolic topiary trees. Various perspectives are employed to challenge the visual reader to first see the picture and then understand the symbolic meaning of each topiary. Humor is not only expressed within the trees; but also through the boys attempts to help in the garden.

Teachers will delight in the page by page opportunities for instruction across content areas. From idioms, time-order words, summarizing skills, time & place discussions; to science (plants & animals), health (memory, aging) and social science (family, community, WWII) lessons, `Grandpa Green' is packed full of ideas for exploration in the classroom. This is an outstanding book for elementary age kids; but importantly this is also a book for every adult who longs to remember the magic from their past, and the continuity of their life. 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TRUE Picture Book, August 25, 2011

By 

Sara M (Houston, Texas)This review is from: Grandpa Green (Hardcover)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program 

This is a very simple book to read, but if you focus only on the words you will miss out on the amazing story the pictures have to tell.
The story is sweet, simple, and sentimental...a great-grandfather who has lived a typical early century life: country childhood, military service in a war, marriage, children, etc. What makes this book wonderful is the emotion the simple text relays and the stunning artwork that portrays Grandpa Green's life's little secrets.
My three and five year old love the whimsical pictures and at the end of the book, I'm fighting back tears every time. Highly recommended!