Description
When Helen’s grandfather, Gong Gong, comes from China to live with her circle of relatives, he is shocked to find that none of his grandchildren speak Chinese. How will he communicate with them? In the beginning he keeps to himself. Then sooner or later he joins Helen to watch the trains. He starts counting the train cars in Chinese, and she repeats the words. Then Helen says the numbers in English. They continue to teach every other, and Helen even learns her Chinese name, which means that “flower.” In this luminously illustrated intergenerational story, the devotion between a young girl and her grandfather helps them overcome barriers of age and language. Grandfather Counts was once selected as one of the vital 50 Multicultural Books Each Child Must Know by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC).