Love and the Rocking Chair

July 8, 2019
Spare, serene paintings cast a tranquil air in this story by the Caldecott Medal–winning team (Ashanti to Zulu), completed by Diane after Leo’s death in 2012. With a child on the way, a young couple hunts for furniture. They spot a white rocking chair, “perfect for the baby’s room,” and the new mother soon rocks her baby in it. As a toddler, their boy rocks “back and forth, pretending the chair was a wild horse.” Years pass. When he leaves home, the chair goes to the attic; later, his father dies. The son’s next visit brings a new family member—“Mom, this is the woman I want to marry.” Soon, there’s a new child, and the rocking chair is brought back into service: “The grandmother sat in the rocking chair and sang softly to the baby.” Following a multiracial family’s cascade of care and affection from generation to generation, graceful scenes feature milky blues and mauves as well as soft, rounded shapes. In this family’s story—which closely follows the Dillons’ own—love occurs alongside loss and new life in reassuring snapshots of cozy domesticity. Ages 3–5.

August 15, 2019
A multigenerational story about a beloved rocking chair that connects the members of one family. In this true story, husband-and-wife author/illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon recount how they bought a bentwood rocker when they were expecting their son. In this chair, the father read stories to the boy. Alone in it, the boy rode the chair across the room as if it were his horse. When empty, the chair held his toys. As the boy grew older, the rocker got less use, prompting the family to store it in the attic. The boy grew into adulthood, his father died, and later the son introduced his mother to his future wife. When she is expecting a daughter, the rocker gets retrieved from the attic and is again put to use for a new generation to enjoy. More simply illustrated than many of the Dillons' picture books, this story employs a palette primarily of blues, browns, greens, grays, and other earth tones. The illustrations emphasize the closeness of the family, regardless of what they are doing, and although the text makes no comment about the characters' backgrounds, the fact that the boy's father is black, his mother is white, and the woman he marries is Asian normalizes multiethnic families. This quiet story exudes intergenerational love. (Picture book. 3-5)

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October 1, 2019

K-Gr 2-Time changes many things, but love will always be there, no matter what. A beautiful white rocking chair connects a family across three generations of sleepless nights and lullabies in this story by the award-winning team. Many years earlier, a couple purchased a rocking chair in anticipation of the arrival of their baby boy. Over time, the chair is used in myriad ways, eventually being placed in the attic to gather dust. When the boy grows up and finds himself with his own child on the way, the chair reprises its role with a brand new baby girl. Sentimental and heartfelt, this story emphasizes the deep roots familial love can have. Tender moments of affection and loss are echoed within the text and illustrations. Soft, muted colors create a backdrop of calm and serenity while concise text explains the events of the story. The endpapers begin with a daytime scene and finish with the same scene at night, depicting the predictable rotation of the earth that moves everyone ceaselessly forward in time. VERDICT A beautiful bedtime story for families of all kinds to share across generations.-Mary Lanni, formerly at Denver Public Library

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2019
Preschool-G This touching tale of intergenerational familial love?the final book by the multi-award-winning Dillons (Jazz on a Saturday Night, 2007)?is sure to pull at heartstrings. Centered around the titular chair, the story follows a young interracial couple and their son, who finds comfort in and plays with the rocker until he grows up, makes new friends, and rarely thinks about the chair. The young man continues to age, marries, and finds use for the neglected chair as he and his wife have their own child. Endearing, sentimental, and drawn in the distinctive style of the authors, this story will find an audience for those looking for narratives about generational legacies that feature diverse families. Younger readers may not understand the death of the older father, and the palpable sadness portrayed does not make this simple storytime fodder. Still, the loving way in which families are shown to develop and grow is sure to make this a favorite gift for new parents and grandparents as this book adds to the amazing legacy of this incredible creative team.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)