Finding Grandma in More Ways Than One

In a story that will feel very familiar to many children, When I Found Grandma by Saumiya Balasubramaniam and Qin Leng explores the feelings around meeting a grandparent who lives in another country for the first time.

Although Maya is very excited to see her grandmother, her excitement quickly dissipates when she realizes how different grandma is from her and starts to have feelings of embarrassment and anger towards her grandmother. Grandma lives thousands of kilometres away and she does things very differently from Maya and when Grandma comes to stay with her, she begins to get extremely frustrated. It takes some time for Maya to appreciate her grandmother. Lost and found on the island leads to a greater understanding and appreciation from Maya. When Maya begins to open up she forms a special bond with grandma.

This story will help grandchildren better understand the feelings that come along when a grandparent comes to stay. Maybe the grandparent has different ways of doing things, maybe the grandparent speaks a different language, maybe the grandparents wears “strange” clothes. Sometimes we don’t realize where these feelings come from and why. Saumiya Balasubramaniam beautifully articulates those feelings through Maya and shows readers that understanding is a two way street. It’s difficult to feel different, like Maya did when grandma came to stay but sometimes that’s not the worst thing in the world.

The art by Qin Leng is as beautiful as ever. I recently enjoyed listening to her talk about her process when working on this picture book and I was struck by how small the illustrations actually are. She works in minuscule and then the pictures are sized up to fit the book format. So much detail in such teeny tiny drawings. It’s quite unbelievable!