Dealing with Alzheimers through Children's Lit.

 

My Grandparents During WWII

         As some of you know, my grandmother passed away of pnemonia a few weeks ago. She had suffered from dementia for about 6 years prior to this happening, and by the time she past away, she had been unable to truely communicate in words for at least two years. Recently, my grandfather has began to have similar memory and communication problems, and he can no longer carry on extending conversations. As is often the case with memory loss, he sometimes does not recognize members of the immediate family.

        I mention all of this because a few weeks ago I ran across an incredible children's book that presented memory loss, and specifically Alzheimer's disease, in a way that children could relate to. The book is called, "Still My Grandma" and it tells the story of a little girl who would always go over to her grandmother's house to bake cookies, look at grandma's "treasure box" and spend quality time with her grandmother.

Then one day her grandmother begins to act kind of funny. She starts forgetting names and places, and she starts doing odd things like put her shoes in the refrigerator. By the end of the story, the little girl's grandmother is in a nursing home, but the little girl still comes to visit. Now, the little girl is the one who tells stories to her grandmother, and her and her mother bake cookies to bring to the nursing home. The illustrations in this book are simply beautiful. They are simple, but each picture is chalked full of emotion. This book would be wonderful for any child in 1st grade or higher who is dealing with this tough issue. After reading this book, I went to the Williamsburg Regional Library and checked out every picture book they had that talked about Alzheimers. After reading them all, this is still my favorite, but I'll list a few other good ones that I found.

My Grandmother,
Christina Hambley
 on her Wedding Day

Other good books about Alzheimers:

The Memory Box By Mary Bahr (2nd grade or higher)

Singing with Momma Lou by Linda Jacobs Altman (2nd grade or higher)

What's Happening to Grandpa?  by Maria Shriver (3rd grade or higher)

Grandfather's Story Cloth by Yawg Daim Paj and Ntaub Dab Neeg (3rd grade or higher) * This book is based on a Hmong family, and talks about remembering in the context of the Hmong story cloth tradition*
A Young Man's Dance by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton (2nd grade or higher)