Big Papa and the Time Machine

Big Papa takes his grandchild back in time to see what bravery looks like in this tender story by Bernstrom (Gator, Gator, Gator!). School-shy, the baseball cap-wearing grandchild admits, "I'm scared I'll miss you." Big Papa's majestic vintage auto takes them into the past--Chicago and Little Rock, Ark., to moments in the 1940s-1980s. In 1952, they see a lady holding a young man "tighter than tight." "Big Papa? That you?" his grandchild says, "You left your mama!" "Yes," Big Papa says. He was afraid, "but sometimes you gotta lose the life you have if you ever gonna find the one you want." Evans (Hands Up!) draws Big Papa at the wheel, a large, reassuring presence, as his grandchild gazes out at the past. Wide angles give the spreads visual power, while soft pastels convey the journey's otherworldly atmosphere and the stories' intimacy. When the grandchild sees a grown man snatch a paper out of young Big Papa's hands in 1941--"See this cotton, and see that field?" the man tells young Big Papa. "Look at it. This is your school"--the grandchild understands why his grand- father thinks school is so important, and sees how it's possible to be simultaneously scared and brave. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)

K-Gr 3—Bernstrom's (One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree) latest book digs deep, with a story about a child facing fears by discovering a grandfather's difficult past. An unnamed, ungendered child is nervous about starting school, so they're taken for a ride with Big Papa in his old blue car. As they move through the grandfather's past, leaving the South in the 1950's as a young man and eventually becoming the caregiver of the child, it is revealed that Big Papa was never able to attend school. In the first-person narrative, written largely in dialogue that features African American Vernacular English, the child poses questions, and the knowing grandparent responds with sage, though not preachy, one-liners. "Sometimes you gotta walk with giants if you ever gonna find out what you made of." The big and bold mixed-media illustrations in Evans's signature style animate the story in a joyous way that uplifts the text. Big Papa is a bearded, brown-skinned man, wearing overalls and a bow tie, and the child resembles the character in Evans's Mixed Me. The notion of time-travel appears fluid; the events of the past occur outside of the car in muted colors. A powerful penultimate spread shows Big Papa's stoic face, a lone teardrop only visible through the rear view mirror. The underlying thread is an encouraging message of facing one's fear, and a constant presence of familial love. VERDICT A unique perspective in a beautifully executed book about starting school. A must-purchase.—Clara Hendricks, Cambridge Public Library, MA