Review by Noda21k -- Love, Grandma by Ann Morris

[Kaitlin Licato]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Love, Grandma" by Ann Morris.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Love, Grandma by Ann Morris is a children's picture book made by a grandmother for her two grandchildren. The author writes about spending time with her two granddaughters, Haley and Payton. She mentions things like building tent houses, doing crafts, and playing pretend. They draw pictures on the sidewalks and do dancing and tumbling. The entire book is in verse, which makes it interesting to read. Overall, the book is cute and has delightful illustrations.

My favorite part of the book is the illustrations. The pictures themselves are beautiful and look like cartoons. Each page has a different setup as well, with some of the images interspersed with words. These changes keep the pages fresh and exciting.

My least favorite part would be that the book focuses so intensely on these two particular girls by name. I think by writing the book exclusively about her granddaughters, the author does herself a disservice. It seems more like a book that only they would want to read. If she had simply dedicated it to her granddaughters, perhaps leaving out their names, it would've felt more applicable to a reader's life. It's hard to enter the story when this is a shared moment between the author and her intended audience (her granddaughters).

Being in verse made the text enjoyable. For the most part, the poetry was good, but it had some trying moments. The author sometimes tried to squeeze too many syllables into certain lines, which killed the flow. For example, she included a few lists but wrote "and" multiple times within them. This added unnecessary syllables and read awkwardly. The same occurred later in a list with a repetitive "or."

I enjoyed the book and thought it was beautifully illustrated. I would give Love, Grandma by Ann Morris 3 out of 4 stars. Its biggest issue is that it seems too focused on a particular audience (her granddaughters), making it less accessible to readers. Had the author made it a fictionalized account or left the names out, it could've been marketed for any grandmother to give to her granddaughters. I would still recommend it for a grandmother to read with her grandchildren though. I would recommend that the grandmother verbally change the names while reading. That would make the book perfect.

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Love, Grandma
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[maggi3]

This sounds like a cute book that many kids would love. I like your suggestion about changing the names when you read it; it would definitely make the book more personalized and engaging for the children. Thanks for the review!