The Fun We Had

Over a year a small girl visits her grandmother and together they share memories of things they have done together, the things they have collected – playing in the river and making a paper boat, splashing in the sea and finding a special shell, running through leaves in autumn – and that one leaf that was so red, the games in the snow, the feather that fluttered by.  The visits are tiring – Nana is not well – but the visits bring joy. It is the memory of these occasions and the objects that are associated with them that become so important when Nana is no longer there – and there will be new objects – another feather, another shell ensuring these memories stay live.

Picture books dealing with loss and death are important. Clarissa Coulthard and Sam Usher have created a picture book that that could find its home in any collection, public or private. In an attractive rhyming text with a simple repeated refrain that starts, ‘You always make me happy…’ she takes us through a year of shared moments brought to life by Sam Usher’s lively and expressive illustrations. The ending is muted for a moment, then life goes on as the child grows up but with the memory of the fun that was had. This is a book to share after the loss of someone loved, a reminder that it is the memories that are important – memories of a relationship. It is this warm relationship between the child and the grandmother that comes through the words and the images with particular clarity. Usher is a master at creating this bond as he depicts the two sharing experiences to the full, exploiting the space of each double spread, his colours popping off the page; the perfect accompaniment to Coulthard’s gentle descriptive verses.