Do You Remember?
A boy and his mother (both white) face each other on a bed. A closeup of their pillowed heads is accompanied by the words “Do you remember …” They recall a picnic in a field with an unexpected bounty of wild berries, a first attempt to ride a bike that ended with a tumble into a haypile, and the smell of an old oil lamp during a rainstorm power outage. The boy’s dad is in each of the memorys, including the one in which they are packing their belongings into a truck—an image shows his father handing the boy a stuffed bear and then waving goodbye as the boy and his mother drive off. As the dark room where the boy and mother lie gradually lightens, the focus shifts to their view from the bed: belongings stacked against the opposite wall, waiting to be unpacked. “Can we make this a memory, too? We could say: ‘Do you remember the first morning in our new home? It was just you and me. … And we weren’t worried or scared. We knew we were going to be just fine.’” The recent absence of the father is unstated but ever-present in a story with rich narrative description and detail, while the loving connection between mother and son promises a future of new shared family memories. Warm watercolor and gouache illustrations show the present clearly, while the memories are mostly snapshots edges softened by the distance of time. Highly Commended, 2024 Charlotte Zolotow Award ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 4-8
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Change
Fathers
Feelings/Emotions
Memory
Mothers
Publishers:
Holiday House, Neal Porter Books
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 36
ISBN: 9780823442621
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Smith