Gone Grandmother/Horatu Hoda Ajji (Kannada)

Words and images to explain grief better

How do you begin talking to a child about death and coping with loss? How do you explain to her why Nani or Ajja or Didi is no longer around? Now help is at hand in the form of three books that take on the difficult subjects of grief and loss. Bijal Vachharajani, children’s book author & sustainability writer

Juxtaposes child's natural curiosity and youthful imagination

The splendid manner in which Rao juxtaposes the child's natural curiosity and youthful imagination to help her find her own answers is easily the book's greatest strength. From The Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Award 2018 citation

Sharply poignant

A very welcome change in children’s books in recent times is the emergence of themes like loss, death, separation, disability, and parental discord. Gone Grandmother is a story that talks about the loss of a dearly loved grandmother. A group of twelve-year-olds ‘reviewed’ the book for me and shared how much they related to it. They felt that whenever they have lost an older family member or a pet, everyone around looks sad but no one has the time to sit and talk with them about it. Using a good synergy between words and art, Chatura Rao and Krishna Bala Shenoi create a beautiful closure to this sensitively told story. Goodbooks.in