Grandpa and the kingfisher

In idyllic scenes that unfold across the seasons, a grandfather tells his grandchild about the kingfishers that live on the river below his house, shown on stilts in the distance. Massini (The Witchling's Wish) paints the river flowing with serene, green-blue water; the stubby kingfishers hurtle into it with force as the white-presenting child and grandfather row over its surface. "Will they stay together forever? Like you and me?" the child asks about the kingfisher family. "No one lives forever," Grandpa replies. "Only nature goes on forever." Across the months, the two follow the kingfishers' nesting and chick-raising, the cycle subtly foreshadowing the end of Grandpa's own life as he grows slower and frailer ("It's nature's way--the grown-ups die and the chicks live on"). When spring arrives the following year, the child, rowing alone, spies a kingfisher; Grandpa isn't there to see one of the chicks, now fully grown. In this slow, thoughtful exploration, Wilson (The Wide, Wide Sea) views death with emotional restraint, underscoring Grandpa's acceptance of his own fate as part of the greater cycle of nature, and then, moving forward, showing how the child has internalized the elder's words. Ages 4--8. (Aug.)

A grandfather teaches his grandchild about kingfishers, nature, and the cycle of life. Massini's lovely watercolor illustrations make the bond between the two plain to see as they row a boat on the river (the child wearing a life preserver), fish, dangle their feet from the dock, and walk along the shore, the grandfather pointing out the kingfishers and explaining what they are doing: fishing, finding a mate, digging a nest hole in the riverbank, laying and incubating the eggs, feeding the chicks. But it's Wilson's words that bring the lesson home as she lyrically describes the markers of each season that passes. The child's questions lead the grandfather to point out that nothing lives forever: "Only nature goes on forever." And when winter comes and the child asks where the kingfisher parents are, grown-ups will steel themselves for what is to come: The birds have died after passing the torch on to the next generation, and one page turn later, the child sits on the dock alone, Grandpa's signature hat and binoculars nearby. And while sad, the child is comforted by the natural world that Grandpa so loved. What little remains of Grandpa's hair is white along with his mustache, while the child's is short and brown. Both are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A lovely intergenerational appreciation of nature and life. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.