My Baba's Garden
Age 3+
Picture Storybooks
The special relationship between a child and his grandmother is depicted in this sumptuous book by an award-winning team.
Inspired by memories of his childhood, Jordan Scott's My Baba’s Garden explores the sights, sounds and smells experienced by a child spending time with their beloved grandmother (Baba), with special attention to the time they spent helping her tend her garden, searching for worms to keep it healthy. They visit her every day and find her hidden in the steam of boiling potatoes, a hand holding a beet, a leg opening a cupboard, an elbow closing the fridge, humming like a night full of bugs when she cooks. A ritualistic relationship with few words, rooted in feeling and emotion.
Creators
Jordan Scott is a poet whose work includes Silt, Blert, Decomp and Night & Ox. Blert, which explores the poetics of stuttering, is the subject of a National Film Board of Canada project: Flub and Utter: a Poetic Memoir of the Mouth. Scott was the recipient of the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize for his contributions to Canadian poetry. The award-winning I Talk Like a River was his first book for children. Jordan Scott lives on Vancouver Island, Canada, with his wife and two sons.
Sydney Smith has illustrated multiple children’s books, including the Kate Greenaway-shortlisted I Talk Like a River, Small in the City and Town Is by the Sea, which both won the Kate Greenaway Medal, The White Cat and the Monk, written by Jo Ellen Bogart, and the acclaimed Footpath Flowers, which was a New York Times Children’s Book of the Year and a winner of the Governor General Award for Illustration. Born in Nova Scotia in Canada, Sydney now lives in Toronto with his wife and son. Find him online at hutten.org/sydney and on Twitter and Instagram as @sydneydraws.
Reviews
There are picturebooks and there are Scott/Smith picturebooks. Together, they are a creative dream team. […] It’s an extraordinary book about love and family, full of lyrical writing, and Smith’s illustrations are sublime. An original, heart-squeezing hug of a book.
The best new children’s books to read this Easter, Irish Independent
I loved the illustrations because even though the grandma doesn’t say anything you can see what she is thinking and feeling from the pictures.
Kids Book Reviews, Books Up North
My Baba’s Garden is a book for intergenerational sharing and much more besides. […] A moving testament to the resilience of the human spirit and enduring love.
Books for Keeps
This peaceful tale will be sure to transport many readers to treasured moment with their own families. Astonishing and evocative artwork by award winning illustrator Sydney Smith casts a comforting light on what is set to become a much-requested classic.
WRD
This stunning picture book beautifully conveys the author’s cherished childhood memories of a special relationship with his Polish grandmother […] Smith’s wonderful artwork is filled with empathy and feeling. […] A powerful moving story of intergenerational love.
The School Librarian
