Our Grandparents : a Global Album

By Maya Ajmera, Sheila Kinkade and Cynthia Pon

With a foreword by Archbiship Desmond Tutu

Pub. Charlesbridge, M.A. 2010

ISBN 978-1-57091-458-4

This delightful book is a wonderful celebration of the relationship between children and their grandparents. There is little text and the colourful and heartwarming photos have been taken in numerous countries around the world. These photos show children and their grandparents experiencing precious times of fun, sharing and laughter – on their bottoms while ice-skating in the USA, kite flying in Germany, sharing food in Morocco – and not just family members from the same ethnic background, but showing the meld of ethnicity when the parents are from different cultures. There are certainly more photos from the USA (14 of 39 within the book itself), but this can be forgiven as this is an American book, and even those photos demonstrate the variety of ethnicities within that country.

In his foreword Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu talks of the special relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren, and the important responsibility grandparents have as valuable teachers and mentors to teach them Love. Compassion. Integrity. Perseverance. If we do our job well, our grandchildren will grow to have open minds and open hearts.

What an inspiring role for grandparents.

At the back of the book a world map is displayed, showing the countries from which the photos are taken, and this is followed by five suggested activities children could do with their grandparents. These help make this a useful resource book for primary school libraries.

Authors

Maya Ajmera is the founder and president of The Global Fund for Children. She is the co-author of several Global Fund for Children books, including Faith, Children of the U.S.A., and Children from Australia to Zimbabwe.

Sheila Kinkade is a writer and communications consultant who works to help nonprofit organizations tell their stories. She is the author of My Family, among other books.

Cynthia Pon is the director of Global fund for children Books and the co-author of Faith.

A note on the back cover advises that part of the proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to The Global Fund for Children to support innovative community-based organisations that serve the world's most vulnerable children and youth.

For more information on Our Grandparents : a Global Album and other books published by Charlesbridge have a look at

http://www.charlesbridge.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=5232