Triptych: Learning Lessons from Grandparents

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco, Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman and illustrated by Stephen Gammell, and The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larson and Irene Luxbacher are all picture book stories of children having fun and using their imaginations while spending time with their grandparents. Each of these books is a reflection of a special moment or pastime shared between a child and their grandparents, where their grandparents are teaching them something or showing them something special from their own past.

Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman and illustrated by Stephen Gammell is the story of three children visiting their grandpa, a former vaudeville star. The children and their grandpa go on an adventure into the attic to find their grandpa’s old tap shoes, from back when he was a song and dance man, and grandpa surprises them with an old fashioned vaudeville show. Grandpa does a tap dance, tells jokes, and does magic tricks for the children while singing “Yankee Doodle Boy” and the children feel like they are sent back in time to Grandpa’s vaudeville days. After Grandpa finishes his show the children tell him that they wish they knew him back in the “good old days” when he was a song and dance man, because they love watching his show, and Grandpa tells the children that he, “…wouldn’t trade a million good old days for the days he spends with us” (Ackerman, unnumbered). This is a heartwarming tale with beautiful colored pencil illustrations, which is a great book for children in the lower elementary grades, but would also be a useful supplementary text for high school students learning about Musical Theatre from the 1920’s.

The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larson and Irene Luxbacher is a story about a little girl, Theodora (Theo) and her Poppa. Poppa and Theo spend all day sitting in Poppa’s garden, learning about the different types of flowers, bugs and birds that are all around them. When Poppa moves into his new apartment, Theo is sad that they won’t be able to sit in the garden together anymore. They try to think of different ways that Poppa can have a garden in his new apartment, but Poppa says that the balcony is too windy for real flowers. Theo suggests using plastic flowers, and then they both decide that instead of a plastic garden they will have an imaginary garden. The next day Poppa gets a big blank white canvas, and hangs it up out on the balcony and Theo and Poppa start making their imaginary garden. First Poppa paints a stone wall and some soil, and Theo adds in a bright blue sky, then they leave the garden and wait for it to be ready for spring. As spring begins Poppa paints in the tiny green stems of the flowers, the crocuses and the scilla, and Theo adds little drops of yellow, purple, white, and blue to make buds on all the stems. Poppa even paints in a little red robin on the stone wall, to show that spring is really here. A few weeks later Poppa has to go away on holiday, and he leaves Theo in charge of the garden. Theo is worried that she won’t know what to do, but Poppa is sure that she will know what comes next, as the sun begins to get warmer and the flowers start to open, and Theo does. Theo paints on some tulips, daffodils, and Poppa’s favorites, forget-me-nots, and she can hardly wait for Poppa to return and see what she has done. This book is mainly directed towards early elementary school children, although I think the theme of a favorite pastime shared between a girl and her grandfather is heartwarming and enjoyable for really any age. I really love the illustrations in this book because Poppa and Theo, and all of the building around them, are plain white with a thick black outline and the imaginary garden is brightly painted with red, orange, green, and blue acrylic. This contrast really makes the garden pop out, and I love the rich use of color on every page. This book also talks a little bit about blending paints to make new colors, and how simple circular shapes can be transformed into Robin’s or tulips with just a few small details added, so I think for older students this could be an interesting text to use in an art lesson.

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco is the story of a little girl who is spending the night at her Grandma’s house when a thunderstorm starts. The little girl is scared of thunderstorms but her Grandma refuses to waste a good opportunity to make Thunder Cake. Grandma and the girl take out the old recipe and start to collect ingredients for their cake. Grandma tells the little girl to pay attention to the lightening, and when she sees it she should start counting until she hears the thunder, and this will tell them how many miles away the storm is. As Grandma and the little girl go around collecting ingredients the little girl is challenged to face several of her other fears, getting eggs from old Nellie Peck Hen, getting milk from old Kick Cow, walking down the dark scary path to the dry shed to get flour and chocolate, and climbing up the high trellis for the secret ingredient-tomatoes- and some strawberries. Grandma and the little girl collect all the ingredients and get the cake into the oven before the storm hits, and then Grandma sits with the little girl and talks about how she was so brave for getting all of the ingredients from scary places, especially during a thunderstorm. The little girl doesn’t believe her, but Grandma thinks that she is a very brave person. When the little girl thinks about it she decides that she is brave, and that now that she’s done all this in a thunder storm she won’t be afraid of thunder again, and Grandma and the little girl sit down and have some cake. I think this book is definitely geared more towards elementary school children, although while reading it as an adult I was very tempted to use the recipe in the back of the book to make my own thunder cake. The illustrations in this book are similar to The Imaginary Garden, because there is a contrast between pencil sketching, colored pencils, and felt tipped markers. The faces of Grandma and the little girl are very detailed pencil sketches that show a lot of the emotions that are expressed in the text, and contrast strongly with the bright colors of the clothing, rugs, animals, and furniture on the page around them.

All three of these stories involve grandparents sharing a pastime or a lesson with their grandchildren. In Song and Dance Man Grandpa is sharing his skills as a vaudeville dancer and letting his grandchildren experience that with him, in The Imaginary Garden Poppa is teaching Theo about flowers and painting, while creating a special place for them to sit and talk, and in Thunder Cake Grandma is teaching her granddaughter how to make Thunder Cake while also teaching her to face her fears and be brave when she is afraid.