Every wrinkle has a story

Every Tuesday, Grandpa meets Yotam after school, and the pair walks to a café where Grandpa sips coffee and the kindergartner drinks grape juice. One afternoon, Yotam asks about Grandpa's facial wrinkles. As the boy explores the older man's visage, Grandpa explains that some wrinkles are from getting old, while others come from events in his life: some happy, others sad. Finally, Yotam asks for markers and paper and begins to draw images of their conversation. Smoothly translated from Hebrew and by an award-winning Israeli novelist, the story has an abstracted, universal setting. Ninamasina's illustrations, rendered in ink, pastels, and colored pencil, are minimalist in style and favor blues and black. Grandpa's face, for example, is depicted variously as a series of free-floating wrinkles, facial features, and glasses; as a blue head profile filled with yellow wrinkle lines; and as a round, smiling face as drawn by a child. The boy's hands also appear in several illustrations, tracing Grandpa's features. A poignant look at a touching intergenerational relationship.

In this tale translated from Italian, a grandfather teaches his grandson about the beauty of aging. Every Tuesday, Grandpa Amnon picks up Yotam from kindergarten, and the two go to Aviva's cafe. Aviva calls them "the grandpa who laughs and the boy who draws," and on this particular day, Yotan asks Grandpa about his wrinkles. "Wrinkles are something grownups get," Grandpa responds. He explains that some wrinkles come from sad moments and others from happy ones. Yotan thinks that one of Grandpa's wrinkles, which formed after the death of a beloved dog, "looks like Papaya's tail," while Grandpa claims that another comes from his frequent smiles after the birth of his grandson. The book wraps up with Yotan deciding that he simply must draw what he's learned. Relying on lingering moments and lengthy descriptions, this feels more like a meditation on aging, loss, and joy for adults than a tale for children; those without a sentimental attachment to a wrinkled adult likely won't feel any particular connection. The spare, blue art is intriguing, and the book's creative use of outlining and white space (with characters who are either seen in blueish silhouettes or have skin the white of the page) adds to the mature feel of the text. A story of body acceptance that will resonate more with grown-ups than young people. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.