THE LINES ON NANA'S FACE

A skeptical child puts her grandmother’s claim that wrinkles are where memories are stored to the test.

“What do you keep here, Nana?” “And what about this?” Each of Nana’s general answers gets fuller explication in a wordless following scene, so that a flashback to a delighted child coming upon a mama cat with new kittens follows “Here is that morning, early one spring, when I solved a great mystery.” Likewise, “Oh, those are from the night I met your grandpa” precedes a scene of screaming roller-coaster riders. “Nana! Do you remember the first time you saw me?” “Yes! That is right here,” she says, pointing to her smile. In lightly brushed watercolors Ciraolo sets this comfortably intimate conversation amid flowers and foliage on a sun porch before closing with a festive family gathering with party hats and balloons in celebration of the benevolently smiling—comfortably wrinkled—elder’s birthday. The figures in the illustrations have light but varied skin tones. Nana shares one sad memory but no tragic ones, so overall, the rich if sketchy life’s story that emerges from the exchange keeps its happy, positive tone throughout.

A sweet intergenerational tête-à-tête.