Grandma's memory runs away

Riitta-Liisa Heikkinen 2010: Mummin muisti karkuteillä
illustrated by Kati Vuorento

Anni and Topi are on summer vacation and they are going to spend it at Grandma's. She is supposed to come and meet them at the bus station, but she is not there.  The kids find their way to her house and she is surprised to see them.

The kids enjoy their first day with Grandma and her dog. The next day Grandma forgets to feed the dog. Later that week Grandma asks the children if she remembered to go to the store or get the mail. The last day Grandma bakes a blueberry pie, but forgets it in the oven.

The kids wonder what is wrong with Grandma, why she remember. Anni suggests that they get her a memory stick, but Topi knows it is for computers. They decide they ask Mom to buy Grandma a notebook and if she asks why, then they tell her.

We all are getting older. In my opinion this book nicely tells about how the kids see the changes in loved ones.  I was a teenager, when my Grandpa started to loose his memory. But he also became jollier, where as my Grandma remembered everything and became bitter. Which one is better?

Sad cheeks

Anna Härmälä 2016: Suruposki (Swedish original Burman)

Heimo is sad. His grandmother Kimmelstiina has died.  Grandmother's appartment is full of furniture and things, which she has collected during her life. But it has to be emptied for the new tenants. Heimo stores the most valuable items in his cheeks. Ther is a golden ball of wool, wooden fork, favourite shoes and a red rubber ball.

Heimo is really upset, he runs out side. Then he finds a circus. All the performers are frantically looking for things, the show is about to start. The clown has lost his nose, the ropedancer can't find her rope. The circus horse has lost its shoe and so on.


 Heimo would like to help, but he cannot talk, because of all the stuff in his mouth. He cannot let the memories of Grandma get lost. He is tired and lonely, his cheeks hurt. He thinks Grandma would not be happy to see him like this. He digs his cheeks and finds Grandma's shoe. He remembers the circus horse missing a shoe. He returns to the circus and gives  his Grandmother's items to the circus.

How to talk to kids about grieving? It is hard for adults, but sometimes the kids simple reasoning can be the answer. Most Finnish parents try to protect their children from any negative feelings, but it is part of life. I believe this book could be helpful to read in families dealing with death.

Pretty funny journey

Aura Sevón 2013: Aika metka retki
phographs Paula Lehto
drawings Emilia Ahonen

Seven year old Elsi is listening to her Great-grandmother's stories about her childhood and is taken back in time to the 1930's.

Things were little different then. Elsi is born 2006, her mother 1974, her grandmother 1949 and greatgrandmother Lempi in 1928.

Elsi imagines being a washer woman.

Lempi's mother was a working woman and the kids in the block stayed home with other kids. Some women were taking care of them. Elsi imagines what the life was like back then.

The book has lovely reconstructed photographs and the story tells many details from the past.

I cannot help but comparing this story to my mother and grandmother. I am born 1977, my mother 1949 and her mother 1911. As a comparison: we are missing a generation. But  my husband is born 1975, his mother 1954 and his grandmother 1928.

My grandmother was a maid at a local manor so the stories in from my family evolve around farming not city life. That is why this book was so interesting. I assume that not all families living in the city were like this, so it might be a little romanticized, but I don't care. Nice book any way.

Day at the Korkeasaari zoo

Katariina Heilala 2015: Päivä Korkeasaaressa
illustrated by Juha Hämäläinen
photos Korkeasaari archive

I am not a big fan of zoos. I do understand their usefulness as restoring animal, but it still sometimes makes me real sad to see the animals in cages.

If you're going to the Korkeasaari zoo, you should read this book. The book is full of wonderful pictures of the animals in the zoo. And there is a lot of information about the rare animals and how they come to the zoo.

The basic story is Grandmother taking Jade and Jonas to the zoo.

Otso and the toe eaters

Anja Portin 2015: Otso ja varpaansyöjät
illustrations by Timo Mänttäri

Otso is staying at his grandmothers and they have fish for dinner. Grandma tells Otso about the food chain: a krill eats plankton, a herring eats krill, a cod eats herring and human eats cod.

This starts to bother Otso: what will eat him? He tries to apply this theory: a bug that will be eaten by his soft toy, which then will be eaten by Grandma's cat. Then Otso will eat the cat and Grandma will eat Otso. Because Grandma's must be at the top of the food chain. Grandma laughs at him and the bug runs away and the cat couldn't care less.




Otso starts to imagine the creatures that will come and eat him.  Do they have bellybuttons? Will they use knife and fork? He can't sleep. Back at home dad reminds him about his name: Otso is a nickname to bear. That relieves Otso and he no longer is scared.

I guess it is universal that kids are afraid of bogeymen. And usually the fear is triggered by the strangest things.  I like the illustrations of this book and how Grandma's house really looks like Grandma's house.

Day of magic

Kaisa Järnefelt 2014: Taikapäivä
illustrated by Riikka Jäntti



Maaria is spending time with her grandparents' house. She has imaginery friends: a horse named Rhubarb. With it Maaria attends summer wedding where many couples get married, also a frog marries a mouse.

It is magical to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma is baking pastries and Grandpa can be mistaken for a sleuth, but he also takes Maaria fishing.

Grandma's red cottage

The book also includes short poems, including an ode to Grandma's cottage and the sleuth lying in the hammock.


My Grandma used to live in a red cottage like here in this book and she always had some pastries, such as the korvapuusti for us kids.  My mother makes the best korvapuusti in the world and my boys love them (as do their dad and everyone, who has ever tasted them).

Grandma baking lots and lots of sweet rolls.

I never had such an imagination as Maaria here in this book. But just a while ago my father came indoors with a spoon. He had found it near a big stone. I admitted that it must have been mine, because as a child I had thought that stone was a sacrificial stone and I had wanted to dig around it. (At the time I wanted to be an archaeologist.) Needless to say, my concentration was lost before I got through the weeds.

Melody forest : in the footsteps of Jean Sibelius

Katri Kirkkopelto 2015: Soiva metsä Sibeliuksen matkassa

"Music is like a butterfly. If you hold it in the palm of your hand, turning it this way and that, inspecting it, its wings will lose their shine. It will still fly, but will no longer shimmer as it did before."

Jean Sibelius tells this to his grandchild, who is visiting him and Aino Sibelius.

Aino Sibelius tells the child about Jean or familiarly Janne. The book is beautifully illustrated. Most illustrations are from Finnish nature.

Jean Sibelius in Ainola with his grandchild

The book comes with a CD, which was recorded in Ainola by cellist Jussi Makkonen and pianist Nazig Azezian. The play some of Sibelius' most universally loved compositions, my favorites Finlandia and Valse Triste.   Finlandia gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Aino and Jean Sibelius on their honeymoon in Pielijärvi

Jean Sibelius was born 150 years ago and he is buried in Ainola, his home. Ainola is still open for visits.


This book has been published in Finnish, Swedish and English.

Satu and Pyrre of the peartree

Anna Gullichsen 2008: Satu ja päärynäpuun Pyrre
illustrated by Cara-Maria Knuutinen

Satu’s is spending her summer with her Grandmother. Grandma Simone is from France and raises plants in pots that grow in her native region: rosemary, lavender, agave, olive trees and many other. Satu’s grandfather was a gardener and he set up a garden that has rare perennials. In the garden plot Satu and Grandma Simone have sown spinach, beans, carrots and chili peppers.

One day Satu climbs into a high oak and hears humming. It is not a bird, a cricket or a kitten. The hummer is a small man who resembles a tree branch. His name is Pyrus Communis, pear tree in Latin. His nick name is Pyrre and he helps Satu take care of the garden, weeding and composting.

Wonderful flowers that bloom in Grandma Simone's garden.

 The book is full of plants in the garden, recipes for Provençal opinion pie and pear marmalade. In June bloom different flowers than in July or August. There is even a small Finnish-French dictionary at the end of the book, since Grandma Simone uses them when she speaks to Satu.

 I realise that my green thumb is making itself known. The book is wonderfully colored and all the flowers look tempting. I cannot wait to get my hands on the dirt. Usually I am too early in the nurseries and I cannot find all the plants that I would like to have in my garden.