The Granddaughter Necklace

K-Gr 1—This quiet, thoughtful book will undoubtedly serve as an opening to a special conversation about family roots. It connects several generations of women through the passing down of a necklace. The narrator relates the moment when she received it from her mother, and then the story moves backward, threading linked accounts of the gifting of the necklace to the woman of each previous generation. Although the profiles are brief, they are rich, incorporating a range of life experiences and, quite wonderfully, the blending of different ethnicities within the family. Ibatoulline's lovely, detailed illustrations have a warm glow, but there are a couple of instances when the faces of the women look odd, as though they were cut and pasted from another piece of artwork. This book may not draw kids' immediate attention, but shared in a family-themed storytime or as a jumping-off point for a discussion about ancestry, it will definitely inspire youngsters to think about their own family trees.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR