Introduction

Welcome back! This is another picture book I found on NetGalley – I always like getting the chance to review these, so I’m grateful for the ARC. I was immediately drawn in by the cover and the art style, and the text paid off in a major way. This is an extremely sweet story of a grandma moving in with her granddaughter and her family. Over the course of the book, we see how the spirited granddaughter helps/’helps’ her grandma acclimate to her new environment. The allegory running through the book of caring for plants and loved ones is at times humorous and kind and I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do. Let’s dive in below.

The Good Stuff

As I mentioned above, this book is all about acclimating to a new family living situation. Many children and families live in multigenerational homes, and more still find themselves needing to adjust to a new living situation as family members age and need new or increased care. This book discusses this subject beautifully, as Mook-Sang presents it only as a positive thing that everyone can enjoy. Funnily enough, it’s somewhat a similar theme to A Spoonful of Time from a little bit ago!

Our main character is the lively granddaughter in a traditional family setting. The book is told primarily in her voice – this allows Kang’s art to cleverly accompany the words with what’s happening from the grandma’s perspective. The story is told in the past tense in terms of all of the things the granddaughter did to help her grandma acclimate to a new living situation. It’s clear through the combination of text and illustration that the grandma doesn’t really need help, but enjoys her granddaughter’s efforts in getting her accustomed anyway. It’s an extremely sweet story that Mook-Sang and Kang work together very well to tell.

Normally I like reviewing picture books’ text and art separately, but in this one they work together so closely to tell the story that it makes doing so difficult. That said, I need to shout out here Kang’s soft, sweet illustrations. Part of the allegory is that grandma is taking care of a growing collection of plants while her granddaughter takes care of her – the text stretches to apply to both caring for a loved one and caring for a houseplant. The illustrations are sometimes congruous from one page to the next and other times jump from scene to scene depending on the implication of the text. One specific, adorable example of this is when the granddaughter tells us “I kept her well-watered.” while we see the grandma and granddaughter having a spray bottle fight around the plants. I’m pretty sure this is where I started yelling at my coworkers to come and look at this book so I wasn’t the only one seeing how darn cute it is! The plants grow in number, size, and variety as the grandmother becomes more comfortable in the space – it’s a wonderful detail that carries throughout the book.

One last thing to mention about the art is also that Kang elected to show a variety of body types for this story. We see a larger-bodied granny skydiving and another doing punch needle art – it’s a small thing, but it’s really nice to see. No specific ethnicities are mentioned or depicted, but this isn’t a detriment at all. The scenes with food don’t depict anything specific either but instead imply traditions of making things together in handed-down ways. It’s another deeply loving element of the art and really emphasizes the point the book tries to make. The last page is well-worth the read.

In Summary

This book is adorable. It’s a sweet and funny way to talk about intergenerational households and what all members of the family might need to make the adjustment easier in a way that children and adults can enjoy. This book is highly recommended.

The Care and Keeping of Grandmas is written by Jennifer Mook-Sang and illustrated by Yong Ling Kang. It is published by Tundra Books, an imprint of Tundra Book Group, which is a division of Penguin Random House. You can find it at the publisher’s website linked here. As always, gichi miigwech for reading!