The Hello, Goodbye Window, by Norton Juster

Juster, Norton. The Hello, Goodbye Window. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Michael Di Capua Books/Hyperion Books for Children, 2005. 32 pages. $15.95, ISBN 978-0786809141

AGE LEVEL
3 and 4 year-olds

GENRE
Picture book

REVIEW
In her own words and illustrated by exuberant paintings with many childlike elements, a very young girl tells us all about the many special qualities and uses of a window in her grandparents’ house.  She calls this kitchen window at Nanna and Poppa’s house the “Hello Goodbye” window, stating that it “looks like a regular window but it’s not”.  Through this window, she greets her grandparents as she arrives, sees what’s going on outside, looks at it as a mirror with her grandpa, and finds a myriad number of other uses, to do with both the real and imaginary world. Throughout the book, the window also serves as a vehicle through which we learn about all the things that our narrator does with Nanna and Poppa at their house, and one can see how much they treasure her.  This Caldecott Award winner is highly recommended for its tribute to the special relationship between grandparents and grandchildren and the imagination, and its reminder to find the joy in simple everyday things.  The focus on a multiracial family is a highly positive aspect of the work. It is quite a lengthy picture book, and for this reason is recommended for three and four year olds wth good attention spans.

LIBRARY PROGRAMMING IDEAS
Read this aloud as part of a special Grandparents' Day celebration at the library (first Sunday after Labor Day), including grandparents reading additional stories aloud, and grandparents and grandchildren making crafts together.

Our Grandparents: A Global Album

 Ajmera, Maya; Kinkade, Sheila; Pon, Cynthia; and the Global Fund for Children. Our Grandparents: A Global Album. Charlesbridge, 2010. 32 pages. $16.95, ISBN 9781570914584   

AGE LEVEL
1 and 2 year olds

GENRE
Nonfiction (Grandparent and Child)

REVIEW
This book is an excellent reminder of the important role that grandparents can and do play in their grandchildren's lives.  The most striking feature of the book is the wonderfully intimate and natural photographs of grandparents and their grandchildren in countries around the world.  The photos are clear and large, making them easily accessible to young children. Grandparents are shown as active and engaged in a variety of physically and mentally challenging activities, including teaching, pushing a sled, planting a tree, etc., as well as enjoying quiet moments. The book's text is appropriate for one and two year-olds, as the same sentence structure is repeated throughout: “Grandparents” - [verb] - [rest of sentence]. For example: “Grandparents explore the world with us” and “Grandparents teach us what they know”.  Children will receive reinforcement of the idea that people around the world are similar in their enjoyment of a feeling of connectedness with their family. The only drawback of the book is that there are more photos of grandparents and grandchildren from the U.S. than from other countries.  However, the variety of photos of U.S. families does demonstrate the ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity within the U.S. well.

LIBRARY PROGRAMMING IDEAS
This would be a wonderful book to share during a grandparents-grandchildren or family storytime, along with other books on the same theme, such as Shelly Rotner's nonfiction Lots of Grandparents, and picture books such as Gale Byrne's Sometimes it's Grandmas and Grandpas, not Mommies and Daddies and Marla Frazee's A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever.