Gran

A silent book for anyone who has ever missed someone.

Young readers will relate to the main character, a two-year-old girl discovering a world abounding in magic and mystery, while grown-ups will be moved by the story of her forced separation from her great-grandmother. We all lived through such things during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 epidemic, and they are not so unusual: flu epidemics keep us apart from our hospitalized nearest and dearest every year. There is always someone we can’t be with…  

Trchová has succeeded in creating a tender, touching picture-book that needs no words and whose epic dimensions are captured in full-page illustrations combined with comic-book images. Story, detail, metaphor, surprise: all these elements are here. Seven episodes; seven walks in magical surroundings, all of which lead to the same place – the stairs up to Gran’s flat. Whether these are approached on land in a snail’s shell or by air under a dandelion parachute is not the main thing…

What the jury of Bologna Ragazzi Award said:
A powerful and very beautiful wordless tale about a toddler trying to find ways of seeing her great grandmother. The discovery of items trigger memories of togetherness, turning objects into actual passageways through time and space. A reflection on the isolation experienced during Covid-19 and the ways people found to connect through memories and imagination. The warm yellow colors in varying hues depict the protagonist’s feelings as she learns the importance of human connectivity, as warm as the colors of the book itself, which in turn warms the reader. This book transcends categories, but seems most apt for early readers to experience reading comics together with their parents or teachers, and learning to walk through the story.

Read more about the book and the award here: Silent book Gran / Babi receives the Bologna Ragazzi Award (BRAW)