A breathtaking immigration tale with appeal across generations. When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home, she chooses an unusual object to learn about: an old cigar box. What she finds inside surprises her: a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather's diary, containing objects she can hold in her hand, each one evoking a memory. Together they tell of his journey from Italy to a new country, before he could read and write - the olive stone his mother gave him to suck on when there wasn't enough food; a hairpin he found on the boat; a ticket still retaining the thrill of his first baseball game. With a narrative entirely in dialogue, Paul Fleischman makes immediate the two characters' foray into the past. With warmth and an uncanny eye for detail, Bagram Ibatoulline gives expressive life to their journey through time - and towards each other.

 

There are 40 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2014 by Walker Books Ltd .

Bagram Ibatoulline was born in Russia and educated at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. His first book was Philip Booth's Crossing , named a 2001 Best Book by Publishers Weekly . He is best known for his books with Kate di Camillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane , and Great Joy . Bagram lives in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania. Paul Fleischman is one of America's leading writers for young people and has won many awards, including a Newbery Medal (the US equivalent of the Carnegie Medal). He lives in the US.