Grandma's Secret - Hardcover

Paulette Bourgeois is the author of more than 40 books for children, including the In My Neighborhood series and Oma’s Quilt. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- A boy loves staying with his rather eccentric grandmother, who describes herself as "an old lady with no teeth," who likes trains, and who serves Jell-O, bologna, and marshmallow cookies. Every morning Grandma warns the boy not to go into the basement because a bear lives there. After many nights of trying to hear the bear and wondering if it really exists, he decides to find out. He discovers a bear--made of cardboard--and regrets having gone down because it was better not knowing Grandma's secret. The next morning when his grandmother warns him about the bear again, he doesn't let her know he has been there, but from then on he wonders where she got a cardboard bear. The illustrations show a serious boy with an adult face and a homely old woman living in worn, comfortable surroundings. The house takes on a quality of foreboding as the boy goes toward the basement and finds himself in a dark, unkempt place complementing the emotions conveyed in the text. It's a slight story with limited appeal. --Jane Gardner Connor, formerly at South Carolina State Library, Columbia
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