The opening image introduces a baby sculpted in greenery, with a spray of what looks like tears where the eyes would be. "He was born a really long time ago," the book begins, "before computers or cell phones or television." A turn of the page reveals a boy in overalls and boots, holding a hose--the source of the "tears." Playful discoveries like these abound.
Roughly halfway into the story, we learn the boy is the narrator, describing his great-grandfather. Each topiary tells a story, and additional colors call attention to important details of the man's life, such as a daisy that doubles as the fuse on a cannon-shaped hedge representing his "world war" experience. As the boy fills a wagon with stray items he finds, we gradually realize he is picking up after someone ("He used to remember everything"). An image of the boy reaching from the top of a ladder to retrieve a floppy straw hat from the brow of an elephant topiary, the image resonates with the cover portrait of his great-grandfather. An elephant never forgets, and neither does the garden. Its evergreen monuments hold Grandpa Green's memories when he cannot.
Opening this book is like opening a gate to a secret garden, filled with the treasures of a life well lived. In his portrait of a boy who adores and honors his forgetful great-grandfather, Smith shows us that the things that are meaningful to the ones we love become part of our garden, too. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness