One Day

K-Gr 2–A young boy finds that “Grandpa went away.” Though his shoes are in the closet, his work is still waiting (a close-up illustration reveals the tools of his trade as a tailor), and acquaintances ask how Grandpa is doing, there are only poignant reminders instead of explanations of where or why the grandfather is gone. “I mean, he always tapped me on the head with his fist when I didn’t say goodbye properly.” As the boy struggles to understand his absence, he falls asleep in his grandfather’s shop and dreams of him at work in a surreally illustrated night space amidst floating buttons, a moon draped in thread, a floating shoe and hat. He awakens to conclude that his grandfather is “someplace beyond the night sky and across the universe.” Matte, two-dimensional illustrations in a muted color palette dominated by black, gray, and shades of brown reinforce the theme of melancholy and mourning. The poetic inferences may require explanation for readers at the younger end of age range.