| 9781596436077 |
| (alk. |
| paper) |
| 1596436077 |
Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... High Prairie Library | Children's Book | SMIT | Children's-J-Easy | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Library 21c | Children's Book | SMIT | Children's-J-Easy | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
A Caldecott Honor Book
From the creator of the national bestseller It's a Book comes a Caldecott Honor-winning 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.
This title has Common Core connections.
Grandpa Green is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Picture Books title for 2011.
One of School Library Journal 's Best Picture Books of 2011.
Author Notes
Lane Smith was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 25, 1959. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from Art Center, College of Design in Pasadena, California. He moved to New York City and was hired to do illustrations for various publications including Time, Mother Jones, and Ms..
He is a children's book author and an illustrator. His titles with Jon Scieszka have included the Caldecott Honor winner The Stinky Cheese Man, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Math Curse, and Science Verse. He wrote and illustrated Madam President, John, Paul, George and Ben, The Happy Hocky Family, The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country, It's a Book, and Grandpa Green.
His other high profile titles include Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! by Dr. Seuss and Jack Prelutsky, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders, Big Plans by Bob Shea, and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. He also served as conceptual designer on the Disney film version of James and the Giant Peach, Monsters, Inc. and the film adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! In 2017, he was awarded the Kate Greenway Medal for children¿s book illustration for There is a Tribe of Kids.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-A child relates the story of his great-grandfather's life as it had been told to him in Smith's poignant story (Roaring Brook, 2011) about childhood on a farm, dreams and imagination, and a life filled with loving memories. Growing older sometimes means forgetting, but this tale celebrates the ability to keep memories alive in different ways. Noah Galvin narrates this simple, but poetic account of a man's life and the topiary garden that shares his story. The narration is simple, with little expression. Page-turn signals are optional. Make sure to have the book available since Smith's illustrations are what makes this Caldecott Honor book so successful.-Kelly Roth, Prospect Park School, PA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this reflective tale, Smith (It's a Book) departs from his customary irony to muse on the memories, talents, and traditions passed down through generations. Smith's young narrator, in overalls and rubber boots, describes his great-grandfather. The boy waters plants and tidies up in a magnificent topiary garden, lined in delicate ink and decorated with ornamental hedges in the shapes of people, animals, and iconic objects. "He was born a really long time ago, before computers or cell phones or television," says the boy, and the first topiary depicts a crying baby. Other creations include rabbit- and chicken-shaped shrubs to suggest a childhood farm; a head-shaped bush dotted with red berries ("In fourth grade he got chicken pox"); and an erupting cannon to signify wartime. Smith works in an impressionistic range of emerald, moss, and seaweed hues, memorializing Grandpa Green's life events in meticulously pruned shrubs. The child eventually catches up with an elderly man who "sometimes forgets things. But the important stuff, the garden remembers for him." It's a rare glimpse into Smith's softer side-as skillful as his more sly offerings, but crafted with honesty and heart. Ages 5-9. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
The idea of a garden as a lockbox of memories is not a new one, but rarely is it pulled off with this kind of panache. Lane drops us into a story of an unnamed person. He was born a really long time ago, before computers or television. Who we see, though, is a fairly modern-looking boy tending to an increasingly impressive topiary garden featuring creations sculpted to visualize each stage of the person's life. Chicken pox are represented by berries across a humanlike shrub's face. Going off to war is visualized by a cannon-shaped shrub with branches shooting from its muzzle. Sketched with a finely lined fairy-tale wispiness and dominated by verdant green, the illustrations are not just creative but poignant especially after it is revealed that the boy is the great-great-grandson of the old man whose life is being described, and whose failing memories are contained in this garden (most impressively in a four-page fold-out spread). Possibly a bit disorienting for the very young, but the perfect book to help kids understand old age.--Kraus, Danie. Copyright 2010 Booklist
