How are such few people reading verse novels? They’re so lovely, so full of emotion and magic! My latest read was The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them), a beautiful middle-grade book about love, stories, and friendship.
Nyla Elachi is of mixed heritage, and she’s bullied for it. But in some ways, that’s the least of her problems. Her beloved grandmother has Alzheimer’s. Her mother is overworked. And her father is dead … or so she thinks.
When her grandmother says she saw Basim, her father, Nyla begins to ask questions. And as she follows one clue after another, hope, fear and anticipation alternate. She doesn’t even know if she’s ready to find out everything that is in store for her, but she hears snippets of whispered conversations that make her more curious than ever. With her grandmother’s “time-travelling”, as Nyla calls the tendency to mix up timelines, the secrets seem murkier than ever. She must find out about her family and her past.
The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) is a story full of secrets. Often, verse novels tend to focus on character rather than plot, but here, every plot detail is important. As the story proceeds, I found myself reading faster and faster, and the verse form is ideal for this sort of pacy reading. Brief lines and sparse text make the story a quick, fulfilling read. It is a beautifully crafted book, with secrets unravelling in the best of ways.
| Title | The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) |
| Author Illustrator | Nadine Aisha Jassat Sandhya Prabhat |
| Tags | Verse Novel, Middle Grade |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4.5 |
| Ages | 11+ |
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