Granny and Bean
by Karen Hesse ; illus. by Charlotte Voake
Preschool     Candlewick    32 pp.     g
9/22     978-1-5362-1404-8     $18.99

A grandmother and toddler grandchild spend a day on a stormy beach sharing the classic seashore pleasures of dodging waves, challenging the wind, watching birds, gathering seaweed, greeting dogs, and sorting shells. Hesse’s rhythmic text in rhyming couplets avoids sounding singsongy with thoughtful punctuation and page design. The first line summarizes the whole story: “Granny and Bean went walking one day / in the sand, by the sea, with the sky all gray.” This plainspoken text provides a foundation for Voake’s atmospheric mixed-media illustrations in which the interplay of gray and white in sky, sea, shadow, and rain is celebrated. Against this dynamic, impressionistic background, Granny and Bean, in glowing primary block colors, are sturdy and joyful. Granny’s bright yellow slicker tells us much of what we need to know about her. A curlew and beach grass on dunes suggest a specific location, but the relationship between a small child and an adult who has the time and patience to wander, who doesn’t mind wet feet, and who provides a sustaining snack at just the right moment feels universal. A fine addition to “going for a walk with a grandparent” stories.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.