Grandpa's Girls

by Nicola Campbell, Kim Lafave (Illustrator)

Overview

A finalist for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize

A young girl delights in a visit to her grandpa’s farm. She and her cousins run through the fields, explore the root cellar where the salmon and jars of fruit are stored, swing on a rope out the barn loft window, visit the Appaloosa in the corral and tease the neighbor’s pig. The visit is also an opportunity for this child to ask Grandpa what her grandmother,Yayah, was like, and explore the “secret room,”with its old wooden trunk of ribbons, medals and photos of Grandpa in uniform.

There is a wonderful blend of fun and family history in this visit to a grandparent, but also the realization that there can be some things about the people we know and love that will always remain a mystery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554980840
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	09/24/2011
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	441,542
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

NICOLA I. CAMPBELL is Interior Salish and Metis, and she grew up in British Columbia's Nicola Valley. She is the author of Shi-shi-etko (Aboriginal Children's Book of the Year) and Shin-chi's Canoe (TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, Governor General's Award Finalist for Illustration, USBBY Outstanding International Books), both illustrated by Kim LaFave. Nicola lives in Vancouver.

KIM LAFAVE has won the Governor General's Award, the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award for his illustrations in Amos’s Sweater by Janet Lunn. He illustrated Shin-chi's Canoe by Nicola I. Campbell, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Award. He lives in Roberts Creek, B.C.

Editorial Reviews

The kids’ robust curiosity and enterprising snooping make it deliciously cheerful.

Toronto Star - Deirdre Baker

The book is a vicarious pleasure...

Quill & Quire - Kristina Campbell

"The kids’ robust curiosity and enterprising snooping make it deliciously cheerful." —Toronto Star

"The book is a vicarious pleasure…" —Quill & Quire

"The voice may be adult, but the experience is recalled vividly enough to bring young readers along." — Kirkus Magazine

From the Publisher

Warm memories of visits to Grandpa's house, laced with sentiment and sprinkled with Salish.

Campbell (Shi-shi-etko, also illustrated by LaFave,2005) draws from childhood experiences to recapture the excitement of visiting her elder relative's farm. With a gaggle of cousins, the young narrator explores grand-auntie's old logyuxkn,climbs into the hayloft, feeds crabapples to a horse, gleefully pleases an irritated pig, rejects Grandpa's pokerfaced offerings of "weird food"—"Don't want no Rocky Mountain oysters. Don't want liver or tripe, neither"—and ventures into the dusty storage room to see his World War II medals. LaFave's cartoon illustrations, informally drawn and digitally colored in transparent washes, capture the exhilaration, sending four energetic youngsters in sneakers and short pants roaming through a succession of comfortably well-kept rural scenes. The lack of pronunciation guidance may cause non-Salish readers to stumble over some lines ("Our grand-aunties and grand-uncles call us kidsschmém'i?t"), but the joy of being part of a large family gathering and romping about while the grownups chatter and laugh somewhere else will be familiar to a wide audience.

The voice may be adult, but the experience is recalled vividly enough to bring young readers along.(Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews