The Tide

In a poignant story about accepting a loved one’s dementia, a girl with long, cherry-colored hair tries to understand that her gentle, mustachioed grandfather sometimes becomes confused: “Mommy says Grandpa’s memories are like the tide”—sometimes “near and full of life,” other times “distant and quiet.” During a day at the beach, the girl and Grandpa build sand castles and search for sea stars. But when it’s time for lunch, Grandpa mistakenly buries the sandwiches in the sand (she wonders “but where are all the sandwiches?”). The girl empathizes with her elderly relative by remembering times when she, too, forgot things: how to tie her shoes, and “the time I buried Polar Bear, and Mommy helped me find him.” Lindsay fills her seaside images with warm, fruity color tones that conjure feelings of kinship and comfort rather than absence and despair. No one is ever truly lost, Welsh suggests, so long as they are loved by those around them. Ages 3–7. [em](Apr.) [/em]