In “Jemima Remembers,” by Crescent Dragonwagon, we read about Jemima, who has just spent a wonderful summer on the old farm by the pond with her aunt, and now it’s time to leave. She knows she’s going to miss the old farmhouse and all the surrounding areas, and she decides to take one last walk, to say goodbye to everything.
As she walks down the path past the garden, she remembers the little seedlings she and her aunt put into the ground, and all the other seeds they planted, lined up in neat rows. They stayed long enough to see the crop come to fruition, but now the remnants of the plants are withering up with the approach of fall.
Even now the trees are starting to lose their leaves and there’s a nip in the air.
She remembers the day she got a sun burn on her shoulders and how much it hurt. Now, shivering in her coat, it’s hard to believe that it really was hot enough to get burned that summer.
She goes down to the dock and stares into the pond, remembering how the water was so cold, she dipped her toe into it before going swimming, just to make sure she really wanted to. Her aunt wasn’t so cautious; she’d just dive right in.
Jemima remembers what it was like to swim underwater and come face to face with a fish. But now the water is even colder, much too cold to swim in, and the hot days of summer seem a long time ago.
She continues her walk, revisiting old haunts and saying goodbye in her mind and heart, and even though she knows they will come back next year, she’s still sad to leave.
This picture book is a little different from most that I’ve read yesterday. Its purpose is not to make the child laugh but to allow deeper reflection into what it’s like to leave a place you love, holding on to the good memories and looking forward to making new ones. I would say this book is geared toward ages 7-10, ages where children can understand the concept of nostalgia. I think a younger child would be bored with it and wonder where the funny animals are.
The artwork is also geared toward an older reader. Done in a black and white line style, only sections of each picture have been colored and the rest is left as it was.
I enjoyed this book as it validated the tender emotions that young girls feel when they have to go from one place to the next, but rather than leaving me with a sad feeling, I felt as though I had been on a walk with Jemima and knew she would come again next year, with a sense of anticipation.
(This book was published in 1984 by Macmillan Publishing Company and was illustrated by Troy Howell.)
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