Grandfather's Story Cloth/Yawg Daim Paj Ntaub Dab Neeg

by Linda Gerdner, Sarah Langford, and Stuart Loughridge

Chersheng is hurt that his beloved grandfather no longer remembers who he is all... read more

Chersheng is hurt that his beloved grandfather no longer remembers who he is all the time and speaks of wanting to go “home,” back to Laos. When Chersheng’s mother gets out the story cloth Grandfather made while at a refugee camp in Thailand, the older man sits down with Chersheng and relates the story told in the cloth: of his family’s life in Laos, of the coming of soldiers and war, and their flight to Thailand. There the story shown in the cloth ends, inspiring Chersheng, who loves art, to pick up its thread. Using paper, scissors and glue, he creates a story collage of “your American memories” for his grandfather—memories that include Chersheng and his brother and all that their family is today. A bilingual (English/Hmong) picture book sensitively weaves a child’s feelings about a grandparent’s Alzheimer’s Disease with his family’s history of coming to the United States. The lengthy picture book narrative is illustrated with tender scenes of family life and images of the story cloth. (Ages 6–10)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2009

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