My Baba's Garden
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- 125,00 kr
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- 125,00 kr
Publisher Description
The bond between a child and his grandmother grows as they tend her garden together.
A young boy spends his mornings with his beloved Baba, his grandmother. She doesn't speak much English, but they connect through gestures, gardening, eating, and walking to school together. Marked by memories of wartime scarcity, Baba cherishes food, and the boy learns to do the same. Eventually, Baba needs to move in with the boy and his parents, and he has the chance to care for her as she’s always cared for him.
Inspired by memories from poet Jordan Scott’s childhood, with beautiful, dreamlike illustrations by Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning illustrator Sydney Smith, My Baba’s Garden is a deeply personal story that evokes universal emotions. Like Scott and Smith’s previous collaboration I Talk Like a River, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, My Baba’s Garden lends wistful appreciation to cherished time with family.
A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Book
A Booklist Editors’ Choice
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
An Evanston Public Library Great Book for Kids
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this picture book by the creators of I Talk Like a River, first-person lines from a child speaker describe a grandmother who "lives in a chicken coop beside a highway," where the child is dropped off every morning before school. Scott's gentle narration reveals that "my Baba didn't have very much food for/ a long, long time." Now, the woman grows and saves it in the small residence, "jars of pickles in the bathroom, garlic hanging in the shower, beets on the shoe rack." The two don't have many words in common, but Baba serves the protagonist oatmeal each morning—and after a spill, picks it up, "kisses the oatmeal, puts it back into my bowl, and gently squeezes my cheeks." During rainy-day walks, Baba displays another form of self-reliance, kneeling to collect worms for her garden, and helping to nourish the soil that will in turn provide sustenance. When Baba grows older and moves to the young grandchild's house, it's a reversal that sees the narrator bringing her oatmeal, planting seeds in her room... and heading out into the rain for worms. Smith captures the duo's close bond in intimate, inky portraits that linger on their tan hands and faces as well as on images of precious food carefully grown and stored. Together, Scott and Smith create a portrait of a love which needs few words. An author's preface offers a remembrance of Scott's Polish Baba. Ages 4–8.
