Grandad's Prayers of the Earth - Hardcover

Douglas Wood is the author of numerous books for adults and children, including the highly acclaimed and bestselling OLD TURTLE, which won the ABBY Award for 1993 and was named IRA Book of the Year. Of GRANDAD'S PRAYERS OF THE EARTH, he says, "I feel I've been getting ready to write this book all my life, for it is about my wise and gentle hero, my Grandad. It's a prayer and a thankyou, a walk in the woods and a remembering smile; and it is for anyone who has ever had a woods to walk, a prayer to whisper, a hero to love." Douglas Wood lives with his family in a log cabin on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. This is his first book for Candlewick Press.

P.J. Lynch is the renowned illustrator of many children's picture books and has twice been awarded both the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Christopher Medal.

The comfortable conversations between a boy and his grandfather become the springboard for exploring ideas about prayer in this poignant picture book. On their walks together in the woods, Grandad tells the boy that trees, rocks and streams pray, as sure as people do: "The tall grass prays as it waves its arms beneath the sky, and flowers pray as they breathe their sweetness into the air." The boy listens hard to hear the natural world's prayers, but never quite hears them. Later, as he grieves the death of his grandfather, the slightly older boy comes to understand Grandad's messageAin a delicately handled epiphany, he seems to grasp that letting one's God-given beauty shine, and finding the beauty in others and in the world, is a prayer in itself. Readers may well draw other interpretations, but, in any case, will likely view the idea of prayer in a new light. Wood's (Old Turtle) reassuring tone and pleasing imagery serve as a framework for the powerful love between grandparent and child that lies at the heart of this story. These solid elements help make a difficult religious concept somewhat more concrete for children. As Wood's text (wisely) offers no definitive answer to the boy's queries about prayer, it could easily serve as a starting point for family discussions. And perhaps best of all, readers are treated to a peaceful nature walk in Lynch's (The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey) soft, careful scenes of man and boy enjoying rushing streams, quiet twilight skies and brilliant green leaves and grasses glistening in the sun. Ages 6-up. (Oct.)
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