Grandpa and the Kingfisher

In idyllic scenes that unfold across the seasons, a grandfather tells his grandchild about the kingfishers that live on the river below his house, shown on stilts in the distance. Massini (The Witchling’s Wish) paints the river flowing with serene, green-blue water; the stubby kingfishers hurtle into it with force as the white-presenting child and grandfather row over its surface. “Will they stay together forever? Like you and me?” the child asks about the kingfisher family. “No one lives forever,” Grandpa replies. “Only nature goes on forever.” Across the months, the two follow the kingfishers’ nesting and chick-raising, the cycle subtly foreshadowing the end of Grandpa’s own life as he grows slower and frailer (“It’s nature’s way—the grown-ups die and the chicks live on”). When spring arrives the following year, the child, rowing alone, spies a kingfisher; Grandpa isn’t there to see one of the chicks, now fully grown. In this slow, thoughtful exploration, Wilson (The Wide, Wide Sea) views death with emotional restraint, underscoring Grandpa’s acceptance of his own fate as part of the greater cycle of nature, and then, moving forward, showing how the child has internalized the elder’s words. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)