COME CLOSER, TATITA

A child mourns the loss of a beloved grandmother.

For the young child who narrates this story, Tatita looms large. She was there when the child was born and then accompanied the little one everywhere—until she went somewhere, far away, where the child could not go. Now that Tatita is gone, the narrator cannot see, smell, hear, or touch her. Grieving, the child looks for her everywhere. Finally, “I look into my heart, and I can see you again. I listen to my heart, I can hear you again. I can hug you again. I can smell you again.” With this newfound understanding, the child learns to love Tatita in a new way. Imapla’s simple yet deeply moving work evokes love and loss with language and images to which young readers will relate. Her mixed-media illustrations use a palette of fewer than 10 tones applied in flat, monochrome fields and incorporate elements of children’s drawings—facial expressions rendered in single strokes of black crayon, oversized hands—to reinforce the sense that a youngster is telling the story. This highly effective combination of words and illustration makes for an intimate reading experience; this is a stirring mentor text for children navigating grief. Characters are light-skinned. Publishes simultaneously in Spanish.

A subtle yet powerful tale about love and loss.