Together With You

4.5

0.0 (0)

375 0

Write Review Add to favorites

Author(s)

Patricia Toht

Co-Authors / Illustrators

Jarvis

Publisher

Candlewick Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

February 14, 2023

ISBN

978-1536223514

Buy This Book

From the team that brought us Pick a Pine Tree and Pick a Pumpkin,a big-hearted story about the love between grandparent and grandchild takes us through the seasons.

For one grandmother and grandchild, keeping dry in spring showers is easy when dashing through the drops side by side. In summer they stay cool with a squirt of the hose, then savor frozen treats in the shade. In autumn, snug in sweaters, they fly a kite while leaning into each other against the wind. And winter finds them nestling under blankets, sipping cocoa and watching the snow quietly fall. Narrated as a kind of love letter from a young child to a grandparent, this picture book pairs Patricia Toht’s safe, tender text with gentle art from Jarvis that meets it at every turn. An ideal gift from grandparent to grandchild (or the other way around), this charming story makes it clear that “no matter the weather, whatever we do, every day’s better together with you.”

Editor review

1 review

Perfect Grandma Read Aloud

March 11, 2023

Overall rating

4.5

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

5.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

A grandmother and her young grandson get together frequently and are able to enjoy walks in various types of weather, depending on the season. In the spring, they put on rain boots and coats to stomp in puddles. They splash in sprinklers in the summer, and cool off with lemonade afterwards while sitting under a tree. They bundle up to fly kites in autumn, and snuggle down with robes and blankets to read when it is winter. In the end, they decide that it doesn't matter what the weather is. The most important thing is that they can spend time together.

Good Points

Toht writes an excellent seasonal book in verse, and I'm fond of her Pick a Perfect Egg, Pick a Perfect Pine Tree, and Pick a Perfect Pumpkin. This is a great overview of the whole year, and I love the relationship between the boy and his grandmother. Toht also wrote All Aboard the London Bus, which I enjoy because it paints such a great picture of all that London has to offer.

Together with You is a perfect read aloud, with short, rhyming lines of text that cause pages to be turned quickly enough to make the antsiest two year old happy. There's enough detail on the pages for quieter children who want to savor the pages and find squirrels hidden in trees or count the flowers in the yard.

Jarvis' illustrations are colorful and happy, and the colors change with the seasons. I really appreciate that the grandmother looks the perfect age; not too old, not too young, and able to run in the sprinkler or walk in the rain. While my grandmothers were both much older and wore aprons and support house with house slippers, I am not that far from grandmother age myself and like to think that I sport fashions more similar to the grandmother in this book.

Together with You is a perfect gift for someone who has a new grandchild, and makes a perfect read aloud even if one has to be conducted over the internet. Pair this with Clinton's Grandma's Garden, Castillo's Grandma in the City, Ferneyhough's Nana, Nenek & Nina, or Grandma’s Purse
by Vanessa Brantley-Newton.