A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2022
One of World Literature Today’s 100 Notable Translations of 2021 “In a tender exploration of the shock of grief and the impossibility of fathoming the enormity of a loved one’s absence, this gentle picture book explores the comfort to be found in the objects left behind, the smell of his jacket, as well as in the thought of Grandpa assuming his rightful place among the stars. Kim Seung-youn’s illustrations offer a simple yet stylishly drawn aesthetic that imbues everything with the warmth of Grandpa’s felts and fabrics. From quiet rooms bereft of Grandpa’s presence, we’re transported on floating balls of yarn into a reassuring, imaginative space filled with the buttons, needles, and threads of his craft, increasingly vibrant with Grandpa’s passion, his energy and creativity, as he lives on amidst the pin-cushion planets and shoe-shaped shooting stars of the cosmos.” —Translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, for World Literature Today
“This deceptively spare picture book follows a child’s plaintive first-person perspective as they come to terms with the loss of their grandfather. Deftly utilizing the refrain ‘Grandpa is gone,’ Lee effectively conveys the disbelief and sorrow of the family, spotlighting what Grandpa has left behind—his shoes, his tailor shop, his friends at the fountain—in simple prose... Kim’s finely detailed, subtly textured art, rendered in a muted palette, alternates between close-ups of Grandpa’s personal effects and shots of the dot-eyed family amid plenty of empty space, reflecting the family’s grief. And scenes of Grandpa and his shop culminate in a space-themed fold-out spread in which Grandpa’s belongings become part of the very cosmos. With the metaphysical ending drawing a through line from Grandpa’s physical presence to something beyond, this sensitively told narrative will resonate long after the final page turn.” —Publishers Weekly
“‘One day, / Grandpa is gone,’ opens this Korean import, told in a direct, forthcoming voice. With “Grandpa is gone” as a stark repeated refrain, the grieving grandchild chronicles the absence… As readers learn about the loss, intermittent spreads reveal an imagined destination for Grandpa: his own planet, complete with the tailoring shop he had during his life. The double gatefold that closes the book reveals even more details, the child speculating that perhaps Grandpa now lives in this place ‘full of dazzling stars.’ In this fantastical place, the beloved objects of Grandpa’s world walk on feet or fly through space; a button hangs in the sky like a planet; and a pincushion serves as a moon. The book’s plainspoken, authentically childlike observations are poignant in their restraint: At one point, the child, wrapped in Grandpa’s jacket, breathes in his scent, repeating (and seeming to finally accept) that ‘Grandpa is gone.’ The striking dust jacket illustration reveals grandchild (cover) and grandparent (back cover) standing on balls of thread or yarn, doubling as planets, that connect them in the vastness of space. Tender and touching.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A young child wonders where his beloved grandpa has gone… Readers may understand that the grandfather has died, but the child decides that Grandpa has likely returned to the place he came from: ‘a place across the universe, full of dazzling stars.’ He was a tailor, and in the concluding scene, with a well-positioned gatefold, Seung-youn’s subdued-earth tone illustrations weave together motifs from Grandpa’s life with those of space. The flat black of the night sky is scattered with button stars, for example; and is Grandpa standing on a ball of thread or a planet of his own? With its refrain “Grandpa is gone,” the beautifully paced text gradually adds layers to the protagonist’s understanding of this enormous loss. An affecting portrait of the deep feelings and confusion of a child mourning the absence of a loved one.” —The Horn Book
“A delicate exploration of grief.” —Words Without Borders
“A lyrical exploration of one child's grief after his grandfather passes away. After his grandfather dies suddenly, a young boy does everything he can to cope with his feelings of sadness and confusion... ‘Grandpa is gone,’ a phrase that's repeated like a mantra throughout the book, and he's never going to return. The illustrations alternate between light and dark spreads depending on the text's focus. Usually when Grandpa is visually on the page (but ‘Grandpa is gone’), the scene is the latter of the two, showing the boy's grandfather encased in darkness with Grandpa obscured in some way (he's facing away from the reader, he's too far away to see, etc.). The lighter spreads feature the boy going about his day as he copes with the loss. The final spread opens into a large, dark gatefold where the young boy and his grandfather can exist in the same space, even just for a little while.” —Let’s Talk Picture Books
A Dewey Divas & Dudes Recommended Children’s Read “A boy's grandfather goes away suddenly, never to return. This is a beautifully made book, in which the cosmic dimension of the story inhabits its very construction.” —Dewey Divas & Dudes
2021-09-24
A child loses a grandparent, mourns the absence, and constructs a story about where that grandparent may be.
“One day, / Grandpa is gone,” opens this Korean import, told in a direct, forthcoming voice. With “Grandpa is gone” as a stark repeated refrain, the grieving grandchild chronicles the absence: Grandpa’s shoes are still in the closet, “waiting to be worn”; he’s not there to pick up his name stamp from the stationery store; and everyone asks about him. Why, the child wonders, would Grandpa leave so suddenly, without any goodbyes? But as readers learn about the loss, intermittent spreads reveal an imagined destination for Grandpa: his own planet, complete with the tailoring shop he had during his life. The double gatefold that closes the book reveals even more details, the child speculating that perhaps Grandpa now lives in this place “full of dazzling stars.” In this fantastical place, the beloved objects of Grandpa’s world walk on feet or fly through space; a button hangs in the sky like a planet; and a pincushion serves as a moon. The book’s plainspoken, authentically childlike observations are poignant in their restraint: At one point, the child, wrapped in Grandpa’s jacket, breathes in his scent, repeating (and seeming to finally accept) that “Grandpa is gone.” The striking dust jacket illustration reveals grandchild (cover) and grandparent (back cover) standing on balls of thread or yarn, doubling as planets, that connect them in the vastness of space.
Tender and touching. (Picture book. 5-12)
