ALL I see is GREEN

Title: Grandpa Green

Author:  Lane Smith

Illustrator: Lane Smith

Published: Roaring Book Press

Copyright:  2011

Pages: 32

Category:  Children

This book was chosen at the last minute, but I really enjoyed reading it. It reminds me of my daughter retelling some of our family outing. The story is told by the grandson, who explores the life of his great grandfather, who is very old now and can’t remember things. The boy is walking through a  topiary garden picking up items and placing them in his wagon. The garden has different events of his great grandfather's life using the shapes of scrubs bushes to remember the important things such as growing up on a farm, getting chicken pox, going to the war, and getting married. The book is a timeline told from a boy version that was told to him by his grandfather.

The illustrations is done in green, brush, watercolor, and oil paint. Throughout the book I notice that all the main events were done like a topiary garden.  The illustrator uses the artistic style surreal to capture the reader attention, that even without words I still could follow along. Shaping the scrubs into realist life objects like his wife, wedding cake, and boy with chickenpox (using red berries) gave it the life event touch. There is also, a four page fold out, showing the entire topiary garden. I love that the grandson and great-grandfather both have on matching outfits.

I would recommend this book for kindergarden through fourth grade because this can be used as a memory tool to see what memories a student can remember that are important to them. I would even use this in science to talk about horticulture and what jobs it consist of. Ask the children do they know what a topiary garden is. (A topiary garden is a type of horticultural that people practice to make a living sculptures or shapes out of shrubs that turns in to beautiful art.)  This book has several awards  in 2012 Caldecott  Honor, Children’s Book of the Year, Notable Children Books and in  2011 Best  book of the Year,  New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book, Under five Notable Books of the Year,  and Younger Readers PW’s Best Children’s Book.