Forget Me Not - Hardcover

Nancy Van Laan is the author of such beloved picture books as Rainbow Crow, Little Baby Bobby, and the Parents’ Choice Award winner Possum Come a-Knockin’, among others. She lives in the mountains of New York.

Stephanie Graegin is the illustrator of Water in the Park by Emily Jenkins, called “a wonderfully fresh look at a timeless topic” by Booklist in a starred review; Happy Birthday, Bunny! by Liz Garton Scanlon; and Don’t Feed the Boy by Irene Latham. Stephanie lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at graegin.com.

K-Gr 3—When her grandmother begins exhibiting signs of Alzheimer's disease, Julia and her parents must come to terms with the illness and get her the care she needs. Grandma's slow alteration rings true: forgetting names, losing the car in a parking lot, and getting lost in a oft-visited place. Though the illustrations depict the child as quite young, her narration is rather adult in tone: "I remember when Grandma was still her old sweet self," "ever so slowly, like a low tide leaving the bay, a change came along," and, "When she sees her bed all abloom...." The mother's explanation of the disease is nonthreatening and easy for a child to understand. The pencil and ink washes, finished digitally and varying in size, subtly show how Grandma is becoming forgetful, from the dying plants and a watering can in the house to her mismatched socks and unkempt hair. Pair this with Mary Bahr's The Memory Box (Albert Whitman, 1992), which introduces the idea of how to preserve memories before they are lost forever.—Maryann H. Owen, Children's Literature Specialist, Mt. Pleasant, WI