Perfect Pairing is Sharing Memories

I love how small treasures are often at the heart of family get-togethers. Whether it’s a tattered photo, a battered object, or a collection of keepsakes, the item often sparks a story and memories pass from generation to generation.

Nanna’s Button Tin

Author: Dianne Wolfer

Illustrator: Heather Potter

Publisher/Date: Candlewick Press/2018 (originally published in Australia, Walker Books/2017)

Ages: 4-6

Themes: intergenerational; family history

Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):

I love nanna’s button tin. It is full of stories.
Nanna’s button tin is very special. It has buttons of all shapes and sizes and they all have a different story to tell. But today, one button in particular is needed. A button for teddy. A beautiful story about memories and the stories that shape a family.

Read a review at Reading Time.

The Matchbook Diary

Author: Paul Fleischman

Illustrator: Bagram Ibatoulline

Publisher/Date: Candlewick Press/2013

Ages: 6-9

Themes: Intergenerational; family history; diary

Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischman and Bagram Ibatoulline tell a breathtaking immigration tale with appeal across generations.
“Pick whatever you like most. Then I’ll tell you its story.” 
When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home, she chooses an unusual object to learn about: an old cigar box. What she finds inside surprises her: a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather’s diary, harboring objects she can hold in her hand, each one evoking a memory. Together they tell of his journey from Italy to a new country, before he could read and write — the olive pit his mother gave him to suck on when there wasn’t enough food; a bottle cap he saw on his way to the boat; a ticket still retaining the thrill of his first baseball game. With a narrative entirely in dialogue, Paul Fleischman makes immediate the two characters’ foray into the past. With warmth and an uncanny eye for detail, Bagram Ibatoulline gives expressive life to their journey through time — and toward each other.

Read my review.

I paired these books because they are intergenerational and feature the sharing of family history. In Nanna’s Button Tin, the unnamed narrator and her Nanna search through the button tin for a “perfect brown button for a perfect brown bear”, but also remember family stories about other buttons they find. In The Matchbook Diary, the great-grandfather purposely used matchboxes as a diary, and the focus of the conversation is his life and journey to America. In both, small “treasures” are the lens for sharing family history – what might you see and share when you visit a grandparent or great-grandparent?

Looking for similar reads? See The Remember Balloons (Jessie Oliverios, 2018) and Grandad’s Island (Benji Davies, 2016).