The most recommended books about grandparents

Most books about the USSR, World War II, and refugees, feature saintly people suffering in noble silence. Something Unbelievable reminds us that the Soviet citizens fleeing Communism and Nazis were all individuals, not one-dimensional ciphers. They were sometimes vain, sometimes selfish, sometimes bored, and sometimes frustrated. They were real, flesh and blood, petty, complicated human beings who lived through the unthinkable… while still managing to think about sex, romance, jealousy, and betrayal. The granddaughter in Something Unbelievable is moved to learn all this and more about her grandmother’s evacuation to Asia during World War II. And so is the reader.

Fablehaven was a huge hit for good reason. It’s an alternate reality story where fantastical creatures, like fairies and satyrs live right under our noses.

The series follows a brother and sister who take very different paths to protect this hidden magical world. Brandon Mull has other equally creative and engaging books that are hard to put down.

One night, Cosmo’s grandfather—who has started to forget things—gives him a key and tells him to go to Blackbrick, a crumbling estate on the edge of town. When Cosmo arrives there in the middle of the night and unlocks the front gate, he finds himself stepping back in time—and making friends with his fifteen-year-old grandfather. Back to Blackbrick is about time travel. It’s about love. It’s about learning to live with loss. It’s quietly tender and deeply emotional. And it’s one of the most life-affirming books I’ve ever read.

From main character Leigh’s opening statement that she is certain her mother has turned into a bird, to the poetic writing that evokes art and color, this book drew me in right away.

One of the first things you’ll notice about this book is its interesting style of prose that shifts between timelines. The writing is beautiful, real, and raw, and the author carries the reader along on an artistic and sometimes heart-wrenching journey of a teen girl who has lost her mother and travels all the way to Taiwan from her home in the U.S. to find answers.

This is a story of family, of finding roots, of growing up, and of seeing the art, beauty, and magic inherent in our world. With hints of surrealism and the supernatural, this book will make you think, laugh, and feel.

Maria Shriver, journalist and former First Lady of California, wrote this groundbreaking book for children that openly discusses dementia.

It is still used as a source to prompt conversations about what children can do to help to care for a loved one with the disease. (Excellent source for early readers.)

An epistolary novel written as a letter from an elderly German man explaining his time as a soldier on the Eastern Front to his grandson. The novel has both the immediacy of a wartime narrative and the introspection of a memoir. “Eat now, sleep now, march now, follow your leader — that’s what they’d demanded of us; we’d followed, and they’d led us into disaster,” the narrator says as he describes his own predicament, but it serves to explain the horrors of the regime as a whole. It resonated for me personally, highlighting the silence and shame that surrounds the experiences of so many Germans who were young adults during WW2. Starritt is half-Scottish and half-German, and We Germans was inspired in part by his grandfather’s time on the Eastern Front. The novel was the recipient of the Dayton Peace Prize.

The author had me at the first line: “Boop loved her daughter to the moon and back, but Justine had a way of sucking the joy out of a room faster than a vampire bat.” This road trip story about three generations of women (Boop, her daughter, Justine—who’s not in the car, but her presence is—and Justine’s daughter, Eve) set against a background of family secrets, has a decidedly Southern tone. One imagines a narrator relating the story from a rocker on the front porch, a glass of sweet tea in her hand. Although there are lighthearted moments, this is a serious story, about familial expectations, mental illness, family secrets, estrangement, and three women trying to find their way back to themselves and to each other. Travelling with this unforgettable grandmother/granddaughter duo is a gift. 

Sunny is spending the summer with her grandfather in his retirement community after the family’s plan of a beach vacation is cancelled. I loved the connection between Sunny and her grandfather. Neither one was counting on this long visit and they both make the best of it. At first, it seems there is nothing much for Sunny to do. Luckily she meets the only other kid in the community and they become good friends, bonding over his beloved comics collection. 

But there are things Sunny sees and doesn’t tell, secrets that weigh on her, troubling memories of home. From funny moments to poignant ones, I couldn’t put this book down. 

Pages & Co: The Bookwanderers offers a bookstore as a portal. The magical land, or destination, is inside of a book’s story.

How amazing would it be to find yourself immersed so much into a favorite story that you get to talk to your favorite characters and also have the possibility of becoming a permanent part of the story itself. Of course, there are problems with that but that’s part of the fun of this novel and why I think it’s unique. I haven’t read the entire series but the other books are definitely on my TBR list.

This author does a beautiful job of explaining how individuals with dementia may not be able to recognize their friends and family, but still need love and attention.

The boy in the story figures out how to connect with his grandpa, even though he may not get a smile in return. It is really and truly delightful and reassuring.

Kent Haruf wrote Our Souls at Night as he was dying. What happens in it? Not a lot. It’s much easier to write stories in which things blow up, plot devices creak, and an ending ties everything up neatly. This quiet, elegiac novel is not that.

Addie and Louis, elderly neighbors, begin sleeping together because the nights are long and they are lonely. Her young grandson, Jamie, visits. Louis gives him a catcher’s mitt and brings home a shelter dog, Bonnie. Their grown children interfere. Complications ensue. And there are no quotation marks to indicate dialogue.

Yet, here I am telling you to go, now, find this book and read it today? Am I crazy? You decide (after you read the book).

P.S. Skip this film. Jane Fonda’s Stepford Wives’ perfection ruins a movie that needed its female beauty defined by wrinkles and gray hair, and an aging, infirm body.… show more.

A beautiful and haunting tale. The Girl from Foreign is my favourite book, a memoir of Shepard’s journey to discover her family’s heritage. Shepard discovered that her grandmother, a member of Bombay’s Jewish community, had secretly converted from Judaism to Islam to marry her grandfather during partition. The book is about her discovering her grandmother’s – and her own – secret identity, hidden from the world for decades.

This all-around stunning picture book is representative of the last type of book that I believe to be the most meaningful to give at a baby shower. Find a book, whether it was planned to be read to a baby or not, that focuses at the heart of what is special about the baby and provides a great way to celebrate the baby’s uniqueness throughout their life.

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is a revolutionary text that celebrates the beautiful shape of the character’s eyes, her incredible familial bond, and the story of her ancestors. As long as the book touches the parent’s soul, then the book will be read and reread countless times to their child, and what better gift is there than that?

Author Melanie Florence draws together many contemporary issues faced by Indigenous kids in this gripping and sometimes harrowing novel about Lucky, a young girl thrown into the foster care system after losing her caregiver grandmother to Alzheimer’s disease. Lucky is of Cree ancestry, and the author is of mixed Cree and Scottish heritage. It’s a fast-paced and easy-to-read novel that will entertain and uplift, while it remains unflinching in its depiction of the realities faced by kids in foster care.

Let's get 'RE&AL' about grandparenting is the mantra of The Grandparenting Effect: 'Relationally Engaged' and 'Always Listening'! Well-documented research, thoughtful advice, engaging stories from a wide variety of grandparenting situations, helpful chapter summaries, ideas for grandchildren from toddlers to adults--plus prayers and bridge stories as well as timely help for conversations with grandchildren about race and cultural differences--this is an insightful and practical book for grandparents (volunteers, too!), pastors, and church educators to bridge the generational gap with wisdom and joy!

I can’t remember how I found Natasha Solomons. But once I discovered one of her books, I devoured the rest. And although it’s difficult for me to choose favorites (in anything!), this is my favorite of hers… and my year’s favorite.

I’m not old enough to have lived through World War II, nor have I ever lived in a stately house, English or otherwise. Yet the challenges faced by composer Harry Fox-Talbot are universally human, transcending time and nationality.

Love, betrayal, grief, and redemption are masterfully woven through a compelling narrative that remains intimate, even as it spans more than half a century, one that was so compelling and personally relevant that I got through all thirteen hours of James Langton’s expert narration in less than a week! 

I love characters that make me feel like I’m in the room with them and both Louisiana and her Granny check that box. Quirky personalities abound in this sweet but often sad story about a girl who hits the road with her eccentric caretaker grandmother in the middle of a starry night. Granny insists that the time has come to leave Florida and confront the curse that hangs over their heads. That means leaving everything familiar and dear to Louisiana far behind: Her friends, her cat, her home. The two end up in a small town in Georgia and as Louisiana’s grandmother’s world gets smaller, Louisiana is left to her own devices in a world that seems too big to handle. 

Claire Freedom uses animal characters to tell this story about the wonderful, loving relationships that exist between grandparents and a grandchild. I love the fact that it is never quite made clear whether the grandchild is a boy or a girl and as a result, the story applies to both. Children will quickly see themselves as the little zebra having fun and being spoiled rotten by two loving grandparents. The rhyming adds to the flow of the book.

This book has truly beautiful art by Poonam Mistry. I find Indian and Hindu culture fascinating and this book brings it to you through the eyes of a child (or two children I should say as it’s about siblings). There is a glossary of Hindu terms in the back which I do appreciate. It is written almost as an Indian tribute to Goodnight Moon which is of course a classic.

I think I found out about Rudolfo Anaya on Facebook. Someone praised him, that he was the best writer to have lived in New Mexico and one of the first true voices to rise out of the bourgeoning Latino writers of the seventies. I immediately bought Bless Me, Ultima and entered a world so familiar, so American, yet so alien, where magic is not just expected, but necessary to live a full life. As I wrote book three of my own series, Anaya’s writing offered a profound influence in opening a world of dreams, a reality only a few can know and understand.