One Book, Two Books, Old Books, New Books. Both subtly touch on themes of mortality. Both feature a boy protagonist and his connection to the old man. Both are essentially about a senior citizen. A lot of comparisons can be drawn to Pixar’s Up. In looking for comparable titles, I keep coming back to a film rather than a children’s book. You’ve gotta love an illustrator who challenges himself to try new things. It’s worth noting that Grandpa Green looks completely different from It’s a Book. The images guide the spare text so well that the words seem to almost disappear – not a easy feat. And clever too – repeat readings bring out details that will delight. Smith brings life to Grandpa Green’s art in ways that are at turns slyly humorous, touching, and eerily beautiful. Fluid characters rendered in ink set against lush green foliage crafted out of watercolor, digital, and oil paint. The artwork is among the best of the year so far. Appropriate, as the garden is his way to never forget the past. The boy brings the forgotten items to his Grandpa Green, who is furiously carving an elephant. The story continues through the man’s life – his first crush, his plans to study horticulture, his military sidetrack – to the current day. At each stop the boy collects a different gardening item. 
He grew up on a farm with pigs and corn and carrots …Įach line is punctuated by a new topiary creation – rabbit, carrot, rooster. The mood is reflective as the boy narrates:īefore computers or cell phones or television.
How to classify this story? A topiary flashback? A botanical biography? The book begins with a boy walking through a massive garden filled with expertly trimmed greenery.
While the sentiment involved won’t stir kids’ emotions as it will adults, it is a book that stands out. Grandpa Green is bold, but in a different way – here Smith explores the life of a man in his golden years. His last outing, It’s a Book, was a genuinely hilarious crowd-pleaser with a catch – an insult punchline featuring a word (jackass) that led to librarians everywhere getting the vapors and wondering where they could hide the thing (my nearby public library settled on the Teen section). This much is clear - Smith ain’t afraid to make bold choices. I realized after reading, rereading, and reflecting on Lane Smith’s latest book, Grandpa Green, that I’ve spent more time considering (and, at times, being confounded by) Smith’s last two releases than the last two books from pretty much any author.
0 kommentar(er)
