The Greatest

by Veera Hiranandani, Vesper Stamper (Illustrator)

Overview

In this poignant tribute to grandparents everywhere, a grandfather reflects on his loving relationship with his three grandchildren. This story beautifully captures how love can make anyone "the greatest" in someone's eyes.

From Newbery Honor author Veera Hiranandani and National Book Award finalist Vesper Stamper comes a poignant story about the love between grandparents and grandchildren.

Grandpa loves Sundays— that's when his three grandchildren come to visit. They act out plays and catch fireflies in the yard and build a sukkot to celebrate the harvest. His grandchildren bestow affection and admiration on him. Sometimes, though, he wonders why they think he's so great? Should he tell them that he's just an average, ordinary man?

Here is a book that wonderfully captures how simple, everyday moments can turn into treasured memories, and how the power of love makes us all the "greatest" to somebody.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593645567
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	09/03/2024
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.31(w) x 11.25(h) x 0.41(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Veera Hiranandani, author of the Newbery Honor–winning The Night Diary, earned her MFA in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of The Whole Story of Half a Girl, a Sydney Taylor Notable Book and a South Asia Book Award finalist, and How to Find What You're Not Looking For, winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award and the New York Historical Society Children's History Book Prize. A former editor at Simon & Schuster, she now teaches in the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA Program at The Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Vesper Stamper writes and illustrates novels which tell, through both words and pictures, stories of history’s rhymes. Her debut illustrated YA novel, What the Night Sings, about the aftermath of the Holocaust through the eyes of a young musician, was a National Book Award Nominee, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, a Morris Award Finalist, Golden Kite Honor Book and Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner, and was named one of the Best YA Books of 2018/9 by YALSA, the Wall Street Journal and Kirkus. Vesper has a BFA in Illustration from Parsons and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from School of Visual Arts. She teaches illustration at School of Visual Art.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/10/2024

Newbery Honoree Hiranandani’s picture book debut is a moving ode to family connection from the perspective of a grandfather who’s perceived as both “the greatest” and “a simple, ordinary” person. The elderly man loves Sundays, when his three grandchildren come to visit—the pages highlight their interactions, the grandfather’s self-perception, and the grandchildren’s openhearted enthusiasm about their grandfather’s artmaking, storytelling, and cooking. “Hardly the next Picasso,” he says in the face of his grandchildren’s appreciation; “thousands of storytellers mold the language better,” and “many chefs have prepared better feasts.” As time passes, the quartet engages in the everyday as well as the seasonal—at Passover, the children see their grandfather as an important leader, while he knows that “he’s only leading the Seder the way his father taught him.” As the family builds a sukkah in autumn, the man wonders whether he should tell his grandchildren that he’s “just a regular old person,” then considers the nature of love’s reflection. Velvety watercolor and gouache illustrations by Stamper (Amazing Abe) capture the pale-skinned Jewish family’s warmth in this demonstrative work about the expansive strength of ordinary love. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Sara Crowe, Sara Crowe Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "A moving ode to family connection [and a] demonstrative work about the expansive strength of ordinary love." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A joyous, sweet, and tender tale of intergenerational love." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher