{"id":30562,"date":"2019-08-09T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=30562"},"modified":"2019-08-09T08:00:25","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T12:00:25","slug":"in-celebration-of-wrinkles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=30562","title":{"rendered":"In Celebration of Wrinkles!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In many stories, grandparents fall into categories of benevolent cookie dispensers, terrifying rule enforcers, or wise but enigmatic relics of a lost age. To be sure, not all real or literary grandparents fit those particular molds. But in our cultural iconography, grandparents (and older people in general) are too often reduced to supporting characters in the adventures of the younger people around them.
\nLuckily, we\u2019ve recently seen a remarkably rich selection of books that meaningfully subvert those tropes. From Minh L\u00ea and Dan Santat\u2019s spectacular ode to the power of art in bringing people together to the Fan Brothers\u2019 celebration of the bonds that connect one generation to the next to Oge Mora\u2019s warm-hearted tribute to\u00a0her family’s tradition of sharing food, last year brought a bounty of books that dug deep into the ways our intergenerational relationships shape who we become in the world.
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\nThis season, a trio of quirky books from creators based in Europe poses a slightly different question. What if our grandparents aren\u2019t actually defined by their relationships to us at all? What if they even (gasp!<\/em>) have lives and passions and quirks of their own?
\n\"\"<\/a>Releasing this Tuesday, Encyclopedia of Grannies <\/em>from French author Eric Veill\u00e9 zooms in specifically on those quixotic creatures affectionately known as grannies. Pushing past the 101 level questions to those less commonly asked like, \u201cHow flexible are grannies?\u201d or \u201cDo you ever find grannies inside pumpkins?\u201d this encyclopedia aims to expose the wide range of granny behavior in the wild. Just as in his previous book, My Pictures After the Storm<\/em>, the moments Veill\u00e9 captures here are\u00a0delightfully odd (although they could benefit from a little more obvious diversity in the illustrations),\u00a0and\u00a0\"\"<\/a>certainly puncture the idea that grannies can generally be defined by any one characteristic at all. The grannies chronicled here \u201cdo whatever they like with their hair. And quite right.\u201d They enjoy more kinds of activities than you might even know existed (raking salt in salt flats!). They represent a broad range of ages (69, 58, 87!). And in a small house inside each granny lives \u201cthat same granny when she was a little girl,\u201d which is an evocative nod to the idea that our grandparents have lived whole lives of their own that we can glimpse pieces of but never truly know.
\nNext, releasing September 3, UK-based Ukrainian author Elina Ellis pulls the curtain back in her\u00a0searing expos\u00e9, The Truth About Grandparents. <\/em>Chronicling all the truths \u201cthey\u201d say about old people, the child narrator explains what it\u2019s really like to hang out with old people like \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>his\u00a0grandparents. Despite the fact that old people are ostensibly \u201cquiet,\u201d \u201cnot much fun,\u201d are \u201cnot bendy,\u201d and are \u201cscared of new things,\u201d the coordinating illustrations belie\u00a0the words on the page, as the exuberant pair in question can be\u00a0seen drumming, dancing, doing yoga, and zooming down roller coasters with joyful abandon. The magic of this book lies in the humorous juxtapositions between text and art, with sharp contrasts well-deployed for maximum fun. At a recent children’s specialist meeting, we had booksellers literally doubled over laughing at this clever concoction, and I can definitely imagine families enjoying the joke together.
\nAnd finally releasing September 23, Wrinkles <\/em>by French artist JR is already one of my favorite books of the year. Featuring a series of photographs originally blown up on buildings and walls in six cities across the globe for a project titled The Wrinkles of the City<\/a>, <\/em>the images are \"\"<\/a>all close-up headshots and capture a wide range of expressions that are alternately irreverent, pensive, playful, and strong. The images feel both highly personal and very matter-of-fact. They are also quite beautiful. Utterly simple in presentation and dedicated \u201cto our grandparents,\u201d the accompanying text introduces the idea of wrinkles as essential parts of the human face (like eyes, noses, and mouths) that appear as we get older and tell the stories of our lives. Featuring\u00a0people from Shanghai, China; Havana, Cuba; Berlin, Germany; Cartagena, Spain; Istanbul, Turkey; and Los Angeles in the U.S., the book ends with two spreads offering each subject’s brief first-person story of the life behind their wrinkles, cementing the idea that these creases and folds are the hard-won spoils of lives lived. Simple and profound, I can\u2019t think of a children\u2019s book exactly like this and I really truly love it. \u201cWrinkles tell the story of someone\u2019s life: Of laughter, And togetherness; Of play, And calm; Of secrets, And wisdom.\u201d
\nSo here’s to celebrating the wrinkles around us and welcoming\u00a0the chance to earn more of our own!
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\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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