Every Wrinkle Has a Story

December 1, 2023
In this tale translated from Italian, a grandfather teaches his grandson about the beauty of aging. Every Tuesday, Grandpa Amnon picks up Yotam from kindergarten, and the two go to Aviva's cafe. Aviva calls them "the grandpa who laughs and the boy who draws," and on this particular day, Yotan asks Grandpa about his wrinkles. "Wrinkles are something grownups get," Grandpa responds. He explains that some wrinkles come from sad moments and others from happy ones. Yotan thinks that one of Grandpa's wrinkles, which formed after the death of a beloved dog, "looks like Papaya's tail," while Grandpa claims that another comes from his frequent smiles after the birth of his grandson. The book wraps up with Yotan deciding that he simply must draw what he's learned. Relying on lingering moments and lengthy descriptions, this feels more like a meditation on aging, loss, and joy for adults than a tale for children; those without a sentimental attachment to a wrinkled adult likely won't feel any particular connection. The spare, blue art is intriguing, and the book's creative use of outlining and white space (with characters who are either seen in blueish silhouettes or have skin the white of the page) adds to the mature feel of the text. A story of body acceptance that will resonate more with grown-ups than young people. (Picture book. 4-8)

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February 1, 2024
Preschool-Grade 2 Every Tuesday, Grandpa meets Yotam after school, and the pair walks to a caf� where Grandpa sips coffee and the kindergartner drinks grape juice. One afternoon, Yotam asks about Grandpa's facial wrinkles. As the boy explores the older man's visage, Grandpa explains that some wrinkles are from getting old, while others come from events in his life: some happy, others sad. Finally, Yotam asks for markers and paper and begins to draw images of their conversation. Smoothly translated from Hebrew and by an award-winning Israeli novelist, the story has an abstracted, universal setting. Ninamasina's illustrations, rendered in ink, pastels, and colored pencil, are minimalist in style and favor blues and black. Grandpa's face, for example, is depicted variously as a series of free-floating wrinkles, facial features, and glasses; as a blue head profile filled with yellow wrinkle lines; and as a round, smiling face as drawn by a child. The boy's hands also appear in several illustrations, tracing Grandpa's features. A poignant look at a touching intergenerational relationship.

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February 23, 2024

Gr 2-4-Yotam, a kindergartner boy, asks his grandfather Amnon about his wrinkles. "Some of my wrinkles are from getting old," Grandpa says. "And some of them are from all kinds of things that happened to me in life. Happy things and sad things." Grandpa continues to tell Yotam about his wrinkles, the happiest being the wrinkle from the day Yotam was born. Grossman's (A Horse Walks Into a Bar) text is poetic and will resonate beautifully with the already-wrinkled, but will children find it compelling? Ninamasina's watercolor illustrations are done exclusively in blue hues until they burst out in joyous colors on the final spread. Yotam and Grandpa are shown in silhouette except for a fuller picture of Yotam on the last page and a rendering of Grandpa by just the lines on his face without an outline of head or body. The entire book has a feeling of calm, peace, and loving acceptance and ends on a loving, entirely lyrical note: "Grandpa Amnon sits looking at his grandson and smiling to himself, and his wrinkles smile with him." VERDICT A beautiful buy for older (and very old) readers moreso than for the standard picture book audience; for use in intergenerational story hours.-Hillary Perelyubskiy

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