While grandpa naps

Before Gilbert's widowed grandfather begins his outdoor nap, he asks Gilbert to make sure the flies stay away; this means that Gilbert can't play with his also-visiting cousins ("Grandpa is counting on me"). Gilbert's narration is too mature for someone going into kindergarten, but this meditation on grandparent-grandchild devotion is touching, and the unpretentious art conveys a relaxed family vibe. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Keeping flies and other distractions away from Grandpa while he snoozes in the backyard isn't an easy jobbut young Gilbert is determined to see it through.Taking his beloved grandpa's possibly joking request seriously, Gilbert spends a long Sunday afternoon hovering near the hammock. This gives him plenty of time to think about Grandma Sarah, who died; about the T-shirts his grandparents brought back from Florida for him, his two brothers, and cousins Robby and Barry (but not, apparently, cousins Carol or Deanna); about clouds; about bugs; about how he'll be in kindergarten in three months when his new little sister comes. Shrugging off the impulse to follow a passing cat and other temptations, Gilbert hangs on alertly until, at last, his dad comes home from work, Grandpa wakes up, and everyone gathers in the kitchen for watermelonwhere his vigil becomes a family story, to be told and retold. Printed, for no evident reason, in numerous colors, the narrative is scattered in short blocks around painted illustrations that set the episode in a suburban neighborhood of shaggy lawns, no sidewalks, and small frame houses. Gilbert and his grandpa are identically bullet-headed, heavyset, and, like the rest of their extended family, pink of complexion. Typographically overdesigned but engaging as a low-key celebration of both intergenerational bonds and the rewards of quiet rumination. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.