Coffee, rabbit, snowdrop, lost /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A beautiful, candid picture book for children to understand what happens when a loved one begins suffering from dementia, and how best to care for them.

A 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book
A Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize in Young Readers' Literature
A USBBY Outstanding International Book of 2022
A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2022
A 2021 Penn Graduate School of Education Best Book for Young Readers
Gerontological Society of America Book Award for Best Children's Literature on Aging of 2022, Honorable Mention

Stump loves being with his grandparents. His days with them are filled with flowers, jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, and so much love! But one day, Stump's grandfather starts to be forgetful, losing his words, which the illustrations how as falling away from him. Stump tries his best to keep his grandfather's lost words safe, by collecting them in a special box. But Grandpa seems to forget more and more every day, and before long, Stump and Grandma realize that they must find new ways to connect with Grandpa, to maintain their bond of love and show him that he's not alone.

This poignant, tender picture book depicts the warmth of the relationship between grandchild and grandparents, as well as the struggle of coping with a loved one's dementia with honesty and sensitivity. Following the story, there is an afterword to the adult reader about dementia and recollection, written by the head of the Danish Center for Reminiscence, which provides some practical tips, such as those depicted in the story (familiar smells, sharing items from the past), for establishing a meaningful way of being together when caring for a relative with dementia.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Translated from Danish and told from the perspective of a grandson named Stump, the narrative begins as a warm family story about cozy visits working crossword and jigsaw puzzles together. The cover illustration featuring giant flower blooms foreshadows fantasy elements, highlighting the importance of the flowers to the family, and immediately demonstrates the loving relationship of the grandfather and grandchild. When Grandpa starts to forget small things, Grandma is annoyed, but the illustrations depict the child collecting actual words, such as rose, coffee, tulip, and rabbit, into a box. Stump recognizes that something is happening to Grandpa before either grandparent acknowledges a problem, and he tries to remind Grandpa of their connection. A crisis forces Grandma to confront the situation, and she becomes able to respond with love and compassion. Heartbreakingly beautiful and sad, this evocative mix of realism and fantasy uses images and words to speak to the consciousness of a child. An explanatory note provides helpful insight for families about using objects and long-term memories to connect to a loved one with dementia.

Horn Book Review

Stump and her grandfather are close, sharing hours of jigsaw puzzles and tending his hundred-plus flowers. Grandpa has a sharp memory, remembering the Latin names for all his beloved plants, until one day he doesn't. Soon, he puts out crystal glasses instead of coffee cups and can't make sense of a favorite puzzle. The young narrator is patient and loving. As Grandpa loses words, Stump collects them in a box. When Grandpa wanders out in the snow wearing bedroom slippers, Stump and her grandmother bring him home and warm him up with coffee. Stump, so nicknamed for her grandfather's childhood pet rabbit, recognizes that what he needs is something tangible, so she presents him with a new rabbit. The first-person account is clear and unadorned. This down-to-earth narration, combined with the dreamy quality of Kjargaard's paintings, successfully conveys the poignancy of Grandpa's progressing dementia and Stump's deep love for him. The artist uses soft edges, layers of watercolor, and a gentle pastel palette, which flattens to shades of gray and blue as winter arrives and Grandpa's memory fails. The final spread, in which he happily holds his rabbit, revives some of the bright colors and flowers from the opening pages, as Stump's gift restores, for at least a moment, some of Grandpa's former self. A detailed, thoughtful afterword about dementia and memory loss adds a useful layer to this emotional story. Maeve Visser Knoth January/February 2022 p.78(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

A special relationship between grandfather and the grandchild he calls Stump changes as Grandpa slides into dementia. The story gently and positively documents a very common Alzheimer's progression--from loss of words to loss of competence in many areas. Told in present tense by the young White narrator, whose real name we never learn, it moves from a time when Stump's grandfather knew the Latin names of all the plants he cared for to a time when he could no longer do jigsaw puzzles or set the table and had lost interest in nearly everything. It's the child who first notices changes. One night Grandpa wanders out alone in the snow, looking for the rabbit that was a childhood pet. Stump and her grandmother head out together to bring him home, beginning a new stage of caring for him, using familiar sensations to help him reminisce and engage. An afterword, aimed at adult readers, explains this process. The lengthy, relatively simple text, smoothly translated from the Danish by Køngerskov, rests atop cream-colored pages opposite full-bleed illustrations. Gouache pastels depict the cozy interior of the grandparents' house, the lush flowers of the sunroom, and the cold gray of the snowy night of searching. Colorful at the beginning, the palette shrinks to grays as Grandpa's depression and dementia set in; color returns with the positive ending. Child-centered, accurate, and engagingly told. (Picture book. 5-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Betina Birkjær made her debut as a children's author in 2014. She has a degree in drama and trained as a scenic artist. Since 2004, she has worked as performer, and since 2011 as an installation artist. Additionally, in 2005, she began working with the Spanish theater group called Teatro de Los Sentidos, and she is also the artistic director of Luna Park Performing Arts. This is Betina's first book to be published in the US.

Anna Margrethe Kjærgaard is a well-established Danish illustrator. She trained at the Danish School of Design and Akademia Sztuk Pieknich in Poland. She has illustrated many stories, easy-readers, and picture books. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Danish Ministry of Culture's illustrator award.

Sinéad Quirke Køngerskov , Ph. D., is a Danish-to-English translator with many published translations. She is also secretary of the Association of Danish-English Literary Translators.