Grammy and Me The Family Tree

Geneaology research and the creation of family trees to have a visual image of one’s lineage is a very popular hobby. With the recent release of the 1940 U.S. Census Records, parents are likely gathering their children around the computer to find their ancestors names in the historical records. In Mrs. Thompson’s book, Grammy and Me: The Family Tree, a young girl creates a family tree with the help of her grandmother. Starting with a tree, the pair adds leaves, branches, a trunk, and a root system symbolizing each member of the child’s immediate family. Names of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings are added to the tree. Once completed, photos of each person are added in place of the names; only the author uses photos of teddy bears, rather than real-life images.

Grammy and Me is a well-intended book encouraging children to make a simple family tree to hang on their walls. There are several ways to create a family chart ,with the tree structure being one of the more popular representations. Mrs. Thompson’s tree depicted in the book is rather confusing with the granddaughter, her siblings, and cousins pictured as leaves; mother and father as the trunk; and grandparents as the roots. Perhaps the author wanted to depict the oldest generation as the roots of the family; however this differs from most family trees which have the oldest generation at the top and newer generations at the bottom.

Readers may prefer to see photos of real people rather than stuffed animals. Still, adding pictures of each family member is a great way to further personalize the tree, bringing the child that much closer to relatives. A blank tree and several blank pages follow this short story allowing readers to create their own visual family histories. The book also mentions two Bible verses.