Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Grandma Summer
Picture Book
For ages 4 to 6
Puffin Books, 1999 ISBN: 978-0140568332
Ben is going to be spending the summer with his Grandma at the beach and he is not at all happy about it. In fact he is determined to be most unhappy, and angry, about it. As it happens though, Ben has a hard time staying upset for long. For one thing Grandma is such an interesting person who knows so much and who tells such interesting stories. Then there is the beach. How can one stay grumpy under that lovely blue sky and while listening to the waves breaking on the sands. Best of all there is the glass float that Ben finds stored in the garage. Ben’s father found the float when he was a little boy and Grandma explains how the lovely glass ball came across the ocean all the way from Japan. After there is a storm in the night Grandma and Ben rush to the beach to see what the waves have delivered, hoping, just hoping that maybe Ben too will get a gift from some far off place.
Full of the joys of a summer spent at the beach, with the gentle rhythms of the ocean flowing in the background, this is warming book about a boy’s summer and how wonderful such a time can be in the life of a young child. Grandma is just the kind of Grandma we would all like to have. After all who can find fault with a woman who lets one eat ice-cream for breakfast.
