GRANDPA GREEN

MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group calls Grandpa Green “the book grownups read to those still growing.”

GRANDPAGREENIIPicture Book Fiction
Age Range: 5-9 years
Grade Level: Kindergarten-4th
Published by Roaring Book Press,
Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings
Ltd Partnership

Text and Illustrations
Copyright © 2011 by Lane Smith

 

Peek inside.

Peek inside.

AWARDS

A Caldecott Honor Book
A New York Times Best Illustrated Book
A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book
Silver Medal Society of Illustrators
An Amazon Best Book
Kansas City Star Top 100 Books
A Barnes & Noble Best Book
A School Library Journal Best Book
Seven Impossible Things Top Ten
A Time Out New York Kids Best Book
Junior Library Guild Selection
Starred Review by Publishers Weekly
Starred Review by School Library Journal

WHY GRANDPA GREEN IS A KEM GEM

KKRISTI’S TAKE
GRANDPA GREEN ornamentally grows our imagination, and creates a place like paradise. This quiet story dedicated to a grandparent derives its energy from the wonderfully clever illustrations. What makes GRANDPA GREEN standout from other sentimental picture books that chronicle a life are the clever, conflicted, laugh-and-cry moments; especially the ending. GRANDPA GREEN reminds both the young and the old that there’s a resolution to every problem, even the ones that seem the most unfortunate.

Lane has created a masterpiece with humor and heART.

Favorite line
“But the important stuff, the garden remembers for him.”

KEM Sapphire
EELISE’S TAKE
Using an art form within an art form, Smith has done it again. His illustrations of topiary designs are brimming with texture, humor, and profound depth as they explore pieces of a fictional gardener’s biography. While some shapes are immediately apparent, I found I could not rush through this book. Each spread demands that the reader pause, or else risk missing a visual surprise. A dramatic four-page gatefold at the ends elaborately reviews the entire story of the gardener’s well-lived life.

Smith’s quiet story explores a wide range of universal emotions, and undoubtedly sparks imagination and discussion across generations of readers.

KEM Diamond


MGrayMARRAS’ TAKE
Wowee! Wow! Wow! I want what Lane Smith eats for breakfast. Who else would have thought to narrate a story about a long and fulfilling life through a great-grandson’s guided topiary tour? Smith’s enigmatic illustrations and elegant silence drew me to one conclusion. Each page turn dazzled me with a new truth.

GRANDPA GREEN covers the three “r’s” of relationship, reverence, and remembering. The Ancient Greek symbol of regeneration and rebirth, GREEN, provides the perfect color scheme for a book about the generational gift of life–and the ultimate last name for Great Grandpa. This timeless and gentle book will bless generations to our great-grandchildren and beyond.

Favorite line (Kristi and I didn’t compare notes. Honest.)
“But the important stuff, the garden remembers for him.”

GEMrub

What do you like most about GRANDPA GREEN?

Go Bananas

Our church will host a Green Fair this Saturday to share ideas on how to live lives respectful to our environment. My parents, who married during the Depression Era, were green long before it became fashionable. They taught me that wasting was akin to stealing nourishment from a dying orphan. So, a recent epiphany on how to save aging bananas eased my orphan-killing guilt and made me feel like a better person.

FrozenBananasOldWayWe bought bananas every week, but often discarded those that over ripened. I tried resuscitating them like my mom taught me, putting over ripe ones in the freezer until I baked banana bread. But our crowded freezer protests by throwing hard food on our insteps. And  there’s only so much banana bread you can make before you 1.) can’t stand the sight or smell of banana bread, 2.) your weigh scale starts smoking, and 3.) your friends can’t stand the sight or smell of banana bread.

A food dehydrator might have been an option, but we don’t have the cupboard space for more kitchen appliances. Plus, I can eat just one banana chip.

FrozenBananasNew&ImprovedWayOne day it occurred to me that grapes taste good frozen, why not bananas? So, when our bananas reached the mm-mm good-to-banana-bread-ingredient teetering point, I peeled them, put them in a freezer safe bag, and froze them. It was life changing! They are perfect on cereal and ice cream; in smoothies and chocolate; and in baking–for those days we will surely crave banana bread again. * And banana bread tastes better with fresher bananas.

FrozenBananasinCerealAlso, studies prove that a good breakfast can enhance one’s productivity and overall health. Better bananas = a better breakfast. Hence, a better breakfast = better writing (or stock trading, or rocket building–whatever you’re doing). Freezing bananas reaps these great benefits:

  • less shopping time
  • smaller eco footprint
  • sweeter smelling garbage
  • more grocery savings
  • healthier eating

If you’re saying, “Duh! I’ve frozen bananas forever,” I wish you would have told my mom. You could have saved us both a lot of starving-children-in-Bangladesh shame.

Flour’s Famous Banana Bread reigns as our favorite banana bread recipe. One batch makes six small loaves or two big. The smaller ones allow for freezing more of the batch for company. You can get the small aluminum pans right in the baking section of your grocery store. Reuse the pans to stay ecosystem friendly.

The recipe is idiot-proof. I know from experience. I tend to mix the ingredients out-of-order and the bread still comes out great. They must taste even more amazing when you read the instructions first. 

Bananas! Bananas! Go green bananas!