A Big Warm Hug
I have had this beautiful book for a while now and it just never seemed to be the right time to dive into it. Given the state of the world and the fact that many people have lost grandparents throughout this pandemic, it felt like the right time to share this moving story with you all. A Stopwatch from Grandpa by Loretta Garbutt and Carmen Mok is a beautiful story of remembrance.
When a young child inherits their grandfather’s stopwatch, they are angry. They can’t understand why they have the stopwatch and not grandpa. They are so angry they throw it in a drawer to be buried under a pile of clothes. Slowly, as time moves on, they think about all the fun they had with grandpa timing everything from races to the end of the street to the length of an ice cream brain freeze. Rediscovering the stopwatch brings all the happy memories back and the child is ready to share them with the rest of their family.
Loretta Garbutt has written a very relatable story. The anchor of the stopwatch is such a common childhood experience. Children are ALWAYS getting people to time things. To take something so everyday and turn it into a gentle and loving story about remembrance and the feelings of losing a loved one is truly inspiring. So many readers will find comfort in this story, there will be moments shared and remembered before, during and after reading. It’s definitely a book to put on any list to share with someone who is experiencing a loss.
Carmon Mok’s illustrations are beautiful. I really love how all readers will see themselves reflected in the illustrations as the children have been imagined as non-binary. Nowhere in the text do pronouns for the children exist. The child could be a boy or a girl or neither, creating so much more representation for all readers. I also love the colour palette of soft greens and blues punctuated with red. A Stopwatch from Grandpa is a big warm hug of comfort.
**In case you are wondering, the saw pictured with the book is something I got from my grandfather. It reminds me of summers spent at grandma and grandpa’s house, especially in the garage tinkering and building.
