Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Aunt Olga’s Christmas Postcards
Illustrator: Bruce Roberts
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 8
Groundwood Books, 2005 ISBN: 978-0888995933
Anna's Aunt Olga is very old, but the lady who collects Christmas postcards, who loves to wear read, and who does tai chi is still a wonderful person to spend time with. Anna especially enjoys the special Christmas visit that she shares with her aunt every year. This year, Aunt Olga tells Anna the story of her Christmas postcard collection. It all began when her brother sent her her first postcard when he was a soldier during World War I. He also gave her a carved wooden box as a Christmas present that year and Olga began to keep her cards in the special box that her brother had made for her.
Anna and Aunt Olga look through the lovely vintage cards. As she looks at the cards, Aunt Olga remembers the things she did and the poems that she wrote all those years ago. Inspired by the stories, the postcards, and by Aunt Olga's poems, Anna and Aunt Olga create some new poems for each other as they sip tea and eat the gingerbread that Aunt Olga made.
The special friendship that Anna and her Aunt Olga share is unique, and it epitomizes the love that a young girl and an old lady can have for one another. To Anna, Aunt Olga's advanced age, her forgetfulness, and her sometimes funny quirky ideas and behavior don't matter. For though Aunt Olga is showing signs of her age, she is still lively and imaginative on the inside, and that is all that matters.
Full of color pictures of vintage postcards, this picture book is a wonderful reminder that age doesn't matter when there is love, memories, and common interests to share.
