THREE PIECES OF BROKEN GLASS

Visits with Great-Grandma Inge are special.

Great-Grandma and the unnamed young narrator share delicious treats and drink water from fancy stemmed glasses. Accidentally breaking a glass one day, the child is devastated, but Great-Grandma Inge consoles the protagonist: “What if I told you…that it’s not only good luck to break glass sometimes, but it’s also tradition?” She relates the stories of three pieces of broken glass on her windowsill. The first is a treasured memory: a shard from a glass her now-deceased husband shattered during their wedding ceremony, per Jewish tradition. The second is a piece of glass from Kristallnacht, when Nazis destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland. This piece of glass is tinged with sadness, but the event spurred her family to flee Germany; others similarly able to leave “scattered all over the world, like pieces of broken glass.” The third piece is lucky—commemorating Inge’s reunion with her displaced family. Great-Grandma Inge is ever gentle as she relates these family stories, helping the child—and young readers—understand that remembrance of the past can inform possibilities, choices, and stories yet to be told. Balancing soft washes of color for tender moments with images of glass cracking and shattering, Stamper’s lovely watercolor and gouache illustrations bring life and depth to the events and the pale-skinned characters.

Sweet, heartfelt, and altogether wonderful.