Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech (0-06-029290-3)
The book I just finished, Olive’s Ocean, was also about a 12-year-old girl and her special relationship with her grandmother. But the two books and the two grandmothers are special in different ways.
As Granny Torrelli mixes her soup and makes her pasta, she tells stories about her childhood friend. That relationship mirrors Rosie’s with her friend Bailey, who is blind. Wonderfully, Bailey’s blindness does not slow him down at all, but complicates Rosie’s feelings towards him. The angst and wonder of friendship are captured here among the smell of great cooking.
Boys and girls alike will enjoy this story. It is a fast and easy read appropriate for sharing in classrooms, since it will generate conversations about disabilities, friendship, and grandparents.