Oma's Quilt

Oma's Quilt
by Paulette Bourgeois
illustrated by Stephane Jorisch


Oma, (grandma, mom's mom), is getting ready to move out of her house in Maple Street that she has lived in all her life, to go and live in the Forest View Retirement Home. Oma does not like this, but she understands that  this is for the best.

Emily goes to visit Oma and finds her feeling lonely and unhappy and a bit irritable. Nothing seems to go right at the Retirement Home for Oma - food tastes funny (Oma loves to make cabbage soup and strudel), the flowers in the hallway make her sneeze, the lumpy bed in a strange place makes it hard to sleep at night. Oma misses looking out her window and waving to Mrs. Mostowsky across the street.

Emily wants to make Oma feel at home, to help her settle in. What can she do?

Well, when Emily helps her mom sort through Oma's things in the basement, she has an idea: Why not use Oma's old clothes, Opa's flannel shirts, Mom's dress for her first piano recital, and Emily's baby blanket to make a quilt! "Oh, Emily! What a clever, clever girl you are!" says mom and they get to work together.

When the quilt is finished, they visit Oma and present it to her. Not only does it keep her warm, the quilt fills Oma with warm memories.

Now, she does not feel so irritable anymore, even though she complains. Whenever she misses Maple Street, Oma wraps herself in the quilt to feel right at home.

Narrated through Emily's voice, the book is gentle and relatable. Many elders in our society are unable to live alone and manage all their daily tasks; moving to a community home seems like the only viable option. It is a tough decision for the family and it is a huge adjustment for the elders to lose their independence and to be so reliant on strangers, while paying for that service.

Of course, kids don't know all these tough emotions when they read this upbeat book. Oma does end up substituting for the in-house cook at the Retirement Home, making her lovely cabbage soup and strudel for her fellow cohabitants. Oma learns to adjust. And what my kids took away is that Emily helped Oma with the transition, and that she visits Oma often, much like she used to when Oma lived on Maple Street.

All in all, a heart-warming tale written in child-friendly tone, with delightful illustrations that are uplifting and mildly humorous.

[image source: Kids Can Press]

I am an artist

Title: I am an artist                  
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Author and illustrator: Marta Altes

This is a story about a little boy who can neither stop seeing the art in everything, nor creating art all the time. The family cat is painted and stationed under a lamp strung with kitchenware, as installation art. The walls are scribbled over. The vegetables are shifted around his plate and arranged artistically. Colours, movement, texture, he appreciates them all. The only problem is that his mother hasn't taken to his art very enthusiastically. And so one day he decides to surprise her with a special work of art, created while she slept. Does she like it or not? I'm not telling!

It comes as no surprise that this book was written by an illustrator. Only someone with a deep love for art could have expressed it in this form. From the dripping paint title on the cover to the quirky, detailed illustrations through it all, the art work is a delight and could very well have told a tale without the accompanying words.

This book appealed to both my children in very different ways even though they're both a little too old for it. The Brat because he does indeed see beauty in everything - Look mama, that cloud looks like a T-rex chasing an apple. And the Bean because she can spend hours mucking around with paint, is keen to paint on the walls in an attempt to keep up with our murals and totally feels the pain of a child whose mother is not amused by his artistic antics.

I love that this book expands the boundaries of art for children who have only been introduced to conventional art work and pointy hills. It introduces them to installations, texture, movement. And it sets their minds free. And sometimes it helps set a grown up mind free too.

I was sent a copy of the book in return for the honest review. 

A little cloud and a handful of continents

I'm making a cluster of these Katha titles because they're suitable for the same age group and are a simple lesson in environmental studies, although Little Cloud is neatly wrapped up in fiction.

Title: Little Cloud's Quest
Author: Stephen Aitken and Sylvia Sikundar
Publisher: Katha
Illustrator: Joyita Banerjee

One day Wind finds Little Cloud looking rather low and prescribes her a healthy dose of friendship. She carries her high up in the sky and introduces her to the Cirrus clouds. The wispy Cirrus clouds point out that she looks nothing like them, is too slow, and then they melt away.  She next finds the Cumulus clouds playing hide and seek and tries to join them. Unfortunately she is too small and the big clouds refuse to play with her.
She bursts into tears of loneliness and her teardrops bring a desert to life. The thirsty children find relief, plants burst into bloom and Little Cloud soon has a lot of friends.

This story is simple enough for a three year old to comprehend, but can also be used to teach older children the different types of clouds. A great add on to text books for both educators, as well as parents. Little cloud facts at the bottom of the page add to what the story illustrates about each type of cloud. 

Co-authors, Stephen Aitken and Sylvia Sikundar are both deeply interested and involved in matters of environment and wildlife. On his blog, Aitken, who has a studio in the Western Himalayas mentions - "The interplay of the mountains with the clouds that hover over them never fails to fascinate me. They suggest a seamless transition from form to formless, hint of an other-worldly existence and lift me from the mundane. I spent many childhood summers lying in fields on my back staring up at a floating stream of clouds." Which adds something to our understanding of what drew him to this topic. 

The illustrations by Joyita Banerjee are simple and bright, but unexceptional. The layout on the other hand, is interesting, with chunks of text laid out in blocks.


Title: The Case of the Runaway Continents
Author: Geeta Dharmarajan
Publisher: Katha
Illustrator: Joyita Banerjee

Neatly positioned as a mystery, The Case of the Runaway Continents raises geographical questions about the positions of the continents, leaving it to a child's enquiring mind to mull over.  Why does the bulge of Brazil fit into the hollow of West Africa? How did the remains of warm water coral reefs end up in the cold Northern Hemisphere. How do certain animals in South America and Africa share ancestors?

I love the way Dharmarajan points young readers in the right direction instead of just feeding them dry facts. It makes the book interactive, keeps their curiosity alive and makes it easier to retain information.

Carbon dating, continental drift, fault zones; a simple and interesting introduction to each of these concepts even while keeping the theme of a mystery alive. A great supplement to children already studying this in school or even for those who are just keenly curious.

Joyita Banerjee's illustrations are once again, bright, colourful and a great support to the text.


I was sent the books in exchange for an honest review.

The Green Glass Sea

pic credit ellenklages.com

The Green Glass Sea
Written by Ellen Klages
Published by Viking, Penguin group
Ages 12+

'The Hill' is a place not yet on the map, away in the middle of nowhere, where a bunch of brilliant scientists are working on a 'top secret' project for a gadget requisitioned by the US government. Nobody knows where it is. So when Dewey Kerrigan, a brilliant and bookish 11 year old extremely interested in the mechanics of how things work, has to make the journey there to join her father Jim Kerrigan, who is one of those brilliant scientists, a series of officials transport her there, no one person knowing exactly where her destination is. En route, she befriends Dick Feynman, who is also part of the team, and whom she strikes up a conversation with, over the intricacies of the radio she is putting together from junk.

When she finally reaches there, The Hill turns out to be a bleak place overrun with the army guarding everything. Of course, the scientists are all there with their families, and there is a school for their children, where Dewey is enrolled. She soon realizes that she is the only nerdy girl around, and one of the two children who has no one to hang out with. The other one being Susan, 'Suze the Truck', who has gained somewhat of a reputation for being pushy, who has an air of bravado, but who secretly wishes she could be friends with somebody. Her wish soon comes true, but not in the way she wants.

Dewey's father Jim has to go away to Washington DC for something important, and the motherless girl is taken in by Susan's parents, the Gordons, both scientists at The Hill. What happens next? Do Susan and Dewey manage to bury their differences and come to a truce, even a friendship? What are all the scientists working on that is so top secret? What is the gadget? Why is Suze's mother who is working on the gadget so worried about it being all wrong? What is that worries Jim Kerrigan, about the US collaborating with scientists from Nazi Germany? What were the rumours about the very air igniting if the gadget was tested, and what, exactly, was the 'test' that is done in the middle of the desert on the 16th of July, 1945, the bright light illuminating the night sky, that they all view in the middle of the night from a safe distance? And what is the green glass sea?

Set against the backdrop of WW2 and the Manhattan Project, this is the story of the making of the atomic bomb from the point of view of the children of the scientists working on it. Real people like Richard Feynman and J. Robert Oppenheimer feature along with the fictional Gordons and Jim Kerrigan. The book spans the time from early 1943 and ends on the day the first bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Though there is no talk of the actual destruction caused, the book still chills because of the knowledge we have about the bomb, and is one of the best children's books on the subject, and winner of the Scott O'Dell Award. There is also a sequel, White Sands, Red Menace, that is worth picking up.

Today, 6th August is the 69th anniversary of the bombing of Japan.