One Day

This deceptively spare picture book follows a dark-haired, pale-skinned child’s plaintive first-person perspective as they come to terms with the loss of their grandfather. Deftly utilizing the refrain “Grandpa is gone,” Lee effectively conveys the disbelief and sorrow of the family, spotlighting what Grandpa has left behind—his shoes, his tailor shop, his friends at the fountain—in simple prose: “The man from the stationery store/ drops off Grandpa’s name stamp./ He asks why Grandpa hasn’t picked it up.” Kim’s finely detailed, subtly textured art, rendered in a muted palette, alternates between close-ups of Grandpa’s personal effects and shots of the dot-eyed family amid plenty of empty space, reflecting the family’s grief. And scenes of Grandpa and his shop culminate in a space-themed fold-out spread in which Grandpa’s belongings become part of the very cosmos. With the metaphysical ending drawing a through line from Grandpa’s physical presence to something beyond, this sensitively told narrative will resonate long after the final page turn. Ages 6–8. [em](Nov.) [/em]