This delightful new illustrated book celebrates the importance of grandmas
It’s the story of what happens when unconvential relative moves in
Released just in time for Mother’s Day is a delightful picture book about grandmothers published by Tundra Books.
“The Care and Keeping of Grandmas” by Jennifer Mook-Sang and illustrated by Yong Ling Kang captures the special relationship between a grandparent and grandchild. Written from the point of view of a granddaughter, the story is about what happens when an unconventional grandmother moves in. While the granddaughter helps her feel at home, making sure she has everything she needs and more, the two get used to living with each other.
Jennifer Mook-Sang was inspired to write the book after she imagined meeting a grandchild of her own. “My aspirations went beyond being the stereotypical cookie-baking grandma,” she says. “I wanted to be the kind of grandma who had lived a life of adventure, and was only just now deciding to settle down. That’s how the story started — with a grandma starting a new chapter in her life.”
Mook-Sang says that she was fortunate her paternal grandfather lived with her family when she was young. “He was part of the family, but he had his own life, too,” she says. “And he always whispered to me that I was his favourite.”
Regarding Yong Ling Kang’s whimsical watercolour and pencil illustrations, Mook-Sang says writers aren’t usually consulted about who they want to illustrate their books.
“It was a treat when my editor sent me the list of illustrators they were considering,” she continues. “I loved the light and playful art of Yong Ling Kang with characters who were full of expression. Her illustrations magically capture both the humour and the heart in the story.”
Mook-Sang was born in Guyana, South America, and her family moved to Scarborough when she was 14.
She has two degrees in psychology and has worked with young children in school and hospital settings. She now lives in Burlington.
“I’ve always been an avid reader but didn’t consider myself a writer until I fell in love with the picture books I read to my two young sons,” she says. “Those books were so full of adventure and heart, and so short. I hoped, maybe, I could write one. It was not as easy as I thought.”
She started her first book, “Speechless,” a humorous middlegrade novel, in a writing class and finished it because her classmates demanded to know what happened next. It won the Surrey Schools Book of the Year. Her second book was “Captain Monty Takes the Plunge” about a stinky pirate who never takes a bath.
When asked what she hopes readers will take away from her book, she replies, “I’d like little and big readers of ‘The Care and Keeping of Grandmas’ to have fun reading the story together, to enjoy looking at all the glorious details in Yong Ling Kang’s exquisite illustrations, and laugh about what it means to take care of someone.”
I read the book to my five-year-old grandson to see what he thought, and he said he liked the story and all the pictures of plants that were on practically every page.
“Shortly after being accepted for publication, my older son and his wife presented me with a mug that said ‘Grandma.’ I was thrilled to realize that my writing could manifest an actual human being,” she says. “So now I’m working on a picture book about a writer who wins a billion dollars in the lottery!”
“The Care and Keeping of Grandmas” may be found in, or ordered from, any physical bookstore; and online through Chapters-Indigo or Amazon. To learn more about the author, please visit penguinrandomhouse.ca.