posted on 02 Sep 2016

The Lines on Nana's Face by Simona Ciraolo

It was easy to miss the cover of this one with its soft pastel colours  displayed alongside more vibrant picture books in a bookshop. There seems to be a conventional belief that young children respond more easily to primary colours and so the majority seem to conform to this kind of colour palette. In my experience, as with adults, the eye needs to be trained to perceive and appreciate more subtle tones and then to spend time looking more closely at the detail.

This one is published by Flying Eye Books and is the fourth picture book written by the young Italian author illustrator, Simona Ciraolo. It is an absolute delight from beginning to end about the  warm and affectionate relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter as they discuss why she has so many wrinkles on her face.

The cover sets the tone as the little girl looks up at and fiercely hugs the older woman, both are smiling and framed by flowers against a pink background. The end covers have a similar pink palette and show us some of the objects on shelves that will crop up later in the story. Although this overall colour design is aesthetically pleasing, I do hope that this decision doesn't immediately restrict it to an implied audience of girls, which would be a real shame. 

The first double spread of pages shows us Nana's wrinkly face dominating the right hand side with the family in more muted colours at the front door arriving for her birthday party. The little girl bridges the two by appearing in the bottom left hand corner looking towards her nana a bit anxiously as she tries to decide whether she might be happy, sad, surprised or worried on this particular visit. 

Little children are notoriously forthright and curious and so she closely scrutinises the old woman's face as they sit together in the conservatory and demands evidence when she is told that ' it is in these lines that I keep all my memories'.Nana begins to recount what each line means and I like the way that there is no text needed as the reader dives into each picture that bleeds rights to the edges of each double page spread. So we can fill the gaps with our imaginations as she shows us the first memory in one of her many forehead wrinkles which is great mystery of a cat giving birth to kittens when she was a little girl set in a summery landscape that somehow conveys heat , warmth and happiness.

Then the line by her eye tells the story of a wonderful picnic by the seaside when she was a teenager. You can almost hear the hysterical giggles of the girls as they huddle together and hear the wind and the roar of the waves as a dark storm looms in the distance. This is magnificent atmospheric storytelling and I really enjoyed adding the narrative detail as I looked at it.The lines at the top of her forehead tell the story of the night she met her husband as she shrieks on a fair ride in the darkness with him grinning beside her. There are sadder memories too as we see her hugging another woman with a sold sign on the house behind her and a car packed with suitcases. When was this and who are the people? So many more questions and speculations to think about here. 

I do love a party in a picture book, particularly when Victoria sponge is involved and this one finishes with all the family wearing party hats with colourful balloons all around as they celebrate together.

I can see this beautiful picture book being enjoyed by children of all ages and also by older people, perhaps even being used therapeutically for memory work in residential homes? The quiet but very special relationship between the little girl and her nana reminds me of the illustrations and the overall happy memories explored in ' Granpa' by John Burningham and the illustrative style is similarly soft. This picture book is a welcome addition to my growing collection about grandparents and I'm so glad that I stumbled across it in an independent bookshop the other day. I will certainly be buying the earlier books by this distinctive author illustrator and be eagerly looking out for more in the future.

I strongly recommend that you hunt down your own copy and read it in defiance of the absurd media messages about aiming for a flawless 'plumped' skin, whatever your age. Wear your wrinkles with pride because it's true that every one tells its own story.

Karen Argent

August 2016