Grandma's Smile

HarperCollins. New in New dust jacket. 1995. Hardcover. No marks. Kindergarten-Grade 2? This fourth offering depicting the relationship between Grandma and Kim is much like the other three? A quiet slice-of-life story rather than a plotted narrative, with muted illustrations that correspond fittingly to the mood. This time it is fall and Kim and her grandmother are harvesting the biggest and last of the pumpkins that the girl helped to plant during the summer in Grandma's Garden (Lothrop, 1994) to enter it in the jack-o-lantern contest at the local fall festival. At first Kim is reluctant to carve up her pumpkin, but with a little encouragement she agrees, deciding to use her Grandma's smile as a model. The muted orange and gold colors reinforce the seasonal mood. Grandma and Kim are the only two characters directly pictured, but their faces are expressive and engaging. This book joins an ever-increasing number of intergenerational stories for young children, but because of its fall motif, it will certainly find a place on most library shelves and in most classrooms as an additional harvest or autumn story. ? Linda Greengrass, Bank Street College Library, New York City. .