Grandad's Camper (Grandad's Camper)

A brown-skinned child with shoulder-length curls narrates a story focused on sharing grief and celebrating loved ones' lives in Woodgate's author-illustrator debut. The unnamed protagonist spends every summer at Grandad's seaside cottage, where their favorite activity is listening "as Grandad tells me about all of the amazing places he and Gramps would explore" in a pink camper. Grandad, who is white, relays beachside adventures, city visits, and other trips with brown-skinned Gramps before the narrator comes up with an idea to honor Gramps's memory. Woodgate layers colored pencil, marker, and crayon-esque textures with digital patterns and techniques, making for a kid-friendly style that also spotlights queer iconography, such as rainbow flags and reclaimed inverted pink triangles. If the book focuses more on the grandparents' relationship than the one between Grandad and child, this gentle intergenerational narrative encourages adults to disseminate family stories and traditions. Ages 3-6. (Apr.)

PreS-Gr 2--Before they were Grandad and Gramps, two young men, waving a rainbow flag from their pink VW bus, were a romantic couple, traveling the world--or at least Europe--together, camping under the stars. Grandad, white, and now balding, recounts their adventures to his young grandchild who hangs on every word. The grandchild, with long curls, is Black, as was Gramps, who has passed away. That child is inspired to help Grandad dust off the old camper/bus in the garage, give it a new blue stripe, change a tire, and start out for new adventures. Woodgate's explosively colorful scenes center most of the book on the men, with snapshot after snapshot of their loving life together. That leaves the child's role (and there is no mention of parents, or even that Grandad and Gramps had children) as brackets to the piece, only becoming an active part of the story at the end. Still, there is a wholesome gentility to every page, of enjoying every minute, even in memory, of growing sweet cherries in the garden, and of filling a home with mementos and stories. The book reflects on an aspect of mature gay life, a piercing sense of loss, and in the child, of the possibilities still to be found. VERDICT For the hope for new adventures, and the glimpse of intergenerational kindness and understanding, this lovely book should be on every shelf.--Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal