The Forgettery

A magical story about memory and forgetfulness and the special relationship of a little girl and her Granny.  Amelia and her Granny area very close and do everything together, but sometimes they forget things, Amelia because she daydreams and likes to explore and Granny because she has lost many of her old memories.  On a walk in a beautiful wood, they come across the ‘Forgettery’ and decide to find out what it is.  Inside, the magic begins!  This is a place where everyone’s memories are stored; each person has his own special room, and soon the Memory Keeper is taking them up in a balloon to find Granny’s room, where Granny finds ‘moments of delight…fluttering in the room like butterflies.’  After choosing the special ones to take away in a jar, they go to see Amelia’s room, much smaller and with different kinds of memories – pleases and thank yous she has forgotten, and a box of ‘ouches, bumps and grazes’.

The Forgettery is a wonderful place, full of busyness and people retrieving all sorts of special things they have forgotten.  And when Granny and Amelia leave, they slide down a long slide to go home.  The pictures are highly imaginative and purely magical.  At home, Amelia begins to take pictures of all the things they do together, and she and Granny make a book of all these memories which they can use to remember.  There is an indication that Granny may be close to death in the last picture when she and Amelia tell each other that they will always love each other, and we feel the happy memories will continue for both.  This is a sunny and lovable approach to a difficult subject and will provide a good way of helping young children accept the fact that a grandparent is no longer quite the same.