Wisdom At Every Age

Wisdom At Every Age

To be guided by the belief that we are all students and teachers is to embrace learning every single day.  On the wall under the windows in my library office, there was a banner voicing this conviction.  Students and those younger than us, need to know adults, teachers, or mentors value their opinions.  They need to know we are learning for and with them.  And if they say something that astounds us, praise their insight, their thinking, and their wit.
There is something exceptionally beautiful about the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild.  The one is young enough to appreciate the wisdom in the elder and the elder is old enough to welcome the wisdom of the youth.  This mutual affection and respect is lovingly presented in
Just Like Grandma
(
Heartdrum
, an imprint of
HarperCollins Publishers
, January 24, 2023) written by debut picture book author Kim Rogers with illustrations by Julie Flett.
On the steps of a house at the end of the street,
Becca watches
Grandma bead and bead
buckskin moccasins.
When Becca asks her grandmother if she can try, she hands her the tools she needs.  The two of them bead side-by-side until Grandpa says dinner is ready.  Next, Becca watches Grandma dancing barefoot in the backyard outside the house at the end of the street.
Becca leaves the house and joins her grandmother.  The two spin until dinner is ready.  Tonight Grandpa has made fried chicken.
When Becca sees what her grandmother can create with paint, she
wants to be
just like Grandma
.
Together they work on the canvas until day’s end.  What will Grandpa serve for dinner tonight?  Watching her Grandma win the grand prize for dancing the Fancy Shawl Dance at the powwow, Becca’s heart soars.  During another portion of the event, they dance together until Grandpa signals their dinner is ready.
Back home, Grandma watches Becca.  She joins her outside because she wants to be like Becca.  The next day, the grandparents wait and then celebrate with Becca.  As the narrative closes, a grandchild is grateful for her grandparents, and Grandma perceives the precious gift she has in Becca.
Author
Kim Rogers
uses the storyteller’s gift of repetition masterfully, fashioning a rhythm which reaches out and wraps around readers.  She calls us back to the house and its description repeatedly. Each time Becca sees Grandma doing something she wishes to replicate, the same words are used.  Each of these shared experiences is followed by Grandpa inviting them to eat a different meal for dinner, even at the powwow.  When Grandma surprises Becca and wants to be like her, the narrative takes on an expanded cadence.  Everything is tied together superbly by the duo’s musings at the end.  Here is a passage.
Becca sits down next to
Grandma and her pretty palette.
Let me try,
she says.
Grandma shows her brushstrokes
on the textured canvas.
Together they paint the most spectacular sunrise
anyone has ever painted,
until the sun dips below the tr…