Our Gracie Aunt

Beebee and Johnson’s mother often goes away – sometimes for a day and sometimes longer – but this time she’s been gone a long time. Miss Roy (obviously a social worker) comes to take the children to their Aunt Gracie. Johnson, the younger child, is willing, but Beebee, who knows that Mama and Aunt Gracie have fallen out, tries to resist. Told from Johnson’s point of view, we see two children torn between love for their unstable Mama and a new and secure life with Aunt Gracie. Set in America (probably New York City), the sadness of the story comes through in both text and illustration. The watercolour paintings bleed at the edges, pulling us into the feelings of the children, and we can understand through the tenderness of the soft colours both Aunt Gracie’s love and their sick Mama’s. The story is told in a semi-vernacular style, appropriate to this black American family, and it brings to life a quiet personal calamity in a stunning and very visual way. At the end, we know the children will have abundant love from both Aunt Gracie and their Mama.