My Grandma's Photos

K-Gr 4–Sunar’s beautiful, heartfelt story about loss and love presents a young boy listening to his elderly grandmother as she walks through her memories, remembering life again through her photographs. The boy follows his grandmother’s life story, from her time as an adventurous girl, to when she started out to pursue her dreams, to when she married the love of her life, the boy’s grandfather. With seamless connections, Urgan’s pastel pencil illustrations and collage upon white pages instill the story with a reminiscent feel, as if sketches of memories can slowly fill with color and detail. Quiet touches of a life lived, with such items as photographs, lace, buttons, and paper textures, feed into the illustrated renderings, as if to show how real the grandmother’s story was and how tangible the memories seem to be. With careful element positioning and black-and-white sketch-like figures surrounded by illuminations of color and nature symbolism, the scenes capture the equally aching and bittersweet emotions of remembering the past and holding onto love, even as one says goodbye. While readers of a young age may relate to the sad event of losing one’s grandparent, the connections and comfort provided through the artistry may be best understood by older elementary readers and shared within a family who may be inspired to seek out their family pictures.