A Voice of the Future

Children sometimes are afraid of old people. I wonder why. Once you get to know them there's really nothing scary about them. Like everybody else, some old people are mean and some are nice. 

The old people I know are all different. My grandparents are in their 70s and for the most part are still in good health. They belong to lots of clubs like the garden club and the Rotary club. But my great-grandmother is in a nursing home. 

My great-great Aunt Mabel is in her 90s and acts like she's in her 50s. She even pays the bills for her son's used car business. And last but not least my neighbor Mrs. Carter, who is in her 80s, mows the lawn every time it needs mowing. 

Here are picture books about old people that little kids might like: 

Strega Nona, by Tomie de Paola, is about a wise old woman who can do magic. There are three more books about her and her silly helper, Big Anthony. Here are two more books about other old people, also by Tomie de Paola. Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs is about a boy who likes to visit his great-great-grandmother. When she dies, he feels bad. But he understands that old people have to die. Now One Foot, Now Another is about a boy who teaches his grandfather to walk after he has had a stroke. 

Emma, by Wendy Kesselman, is about an old woman who decides to start painting pictures because she didn't like the picture of her old village that her family had because it didn't look the way she remembered her village. 

Annie and the Old One, by Miska Miles, illustrated by Peter Parnall, is about an Indian girl and her grandmother. Annie's grandmother said that she would die when the family finished weaving a rug. Annie tries everything to keep her mother from weaving. She finally understands that old people have to go to "mother earth." 

Special Friends, by Terry Berger, is about a girl who makes friends with her next-door neighbor. They talk, dance, and play the piano. Instead of drawn pictures, the story has photographs (by David Hechtinger). 

Here are some books that bigger kids, 6 to 12 years old, might like: 

O, the Red Rose Tree, by Patricia Beatty, is about an old woman who made quilts and some girls who helped her. Ludell, by Brenda Wilkinson, is about a girl who lives with her grandmother because her mother wanted action and moved to New York, leaving Ludell behind. Her grandmother is a maid in Waycross, Georgia. 

In Heidi, by Johanna Spyri, there are three different old people. Heidi's grandfather, "the Alm Uncle," is very strong and likes to build. He carries Clara, a crippled girl, about. Peter's grandmother is blind and spins in her corner. Clara's grandmother is rich and kind but teaches Heidi a whole lot of lies about God, for instance if you forget to pray to God, he'll forget you. 

Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, is about a girl who goes to live with her old relatives she has been afraid of. Aunt Abigail gives her a kitten on her first night there. Uncle Henry lets her drive the horse home from the station. 

These are more books about old people that kids might like: Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry; The Little Silver House, by Jennie D. Lindquist; Behind the Attic Wall, by Sylvia Cassedy; and All the Cats in the World, by Sonia Levitin.