Miss Irwin

PreS-Gr 2–Light and memory, past and present, darkness and forgetfulness—these are just a few of the themes Say explores in a book that takes on dementia through the loving eyes of a grandson visiting his grandmother. In sunshine-filled watercolors that help readers navigate the misunderstandings as Andy does, a story unfolds; his grandmother mistakes him for a former student, Willie, from a long-ago lesson when she was a much younger teacher, Miss Irwin. She saved the small hummingbird nest Willie made for her back then, and reminds him of how the class put a feeder in a plum tree. Although Andy slips up, and calls her “Grandma,” she corrects him gently, and he adapts to her time and place, with a compassion that is astounding and yet utterly childlike. That Say conveys this in mere pages, with very few words, is simply more evidence of his mastery of form; the scenes of past and present, from gray-haired woman to a younger teacher, keep readers grounded in time, and when Andy promises himself to make a nest, they will feel his resolve as well as his honoring of his relative, no matter where her memories dwell.