Search - Boundless Grace

An outstanding book! It is a paper-back picture book for elementary age. The characters are African American. However this book is really for a much wider audience. Any child who is faced with coping with divorce and step-parents will gain much from how Grace, with the help of her adults, copes happily and capably with divorce, a step-mom, step-siblings, and an intercontinental relationship. The people in the illustrations are very real, full of life and emotion.

ISBN 0590737910 - Printed in the U.S.A., for those who care. The best sequels are those that jive with the previous book/s but that you can read without having read the others. In that, Boundless Grace succeeds. In all else, Boundless Grace succeeds spectacularly.

An avid reader, Grace is sad that her family isn't "right". In the books, there's a mother, father, brother, sister, dog and cat - but her family is just her, her mother, a cat and Nana. Her father left her behind to go back to Africa, where he started a new family. One day, a letter arrives. Grace's father has saved enough money for two plane tickets to Africa for Grace and Nana! Although Africa is exciting, Grace is jealous that they have a storybook family without her and remembers all the wicked step-mother tales she's read. She holds back from Jatou, her father's new wife, until her father asks her to try to be nice because they are both important to him. Once she makes an effort, Grace really enjoys her stay and realizes that Nana is right - a family is what you make it.

This is a fantastic book on several levels, not the least of which is that it features black characters and introduces some small facets of African culture. More, Grace is sad that there aren't books about families like hers - and now there is! Children from similar families, especially, will enjoy Mary Hoffman's story. Illustrator Caroline Binch's drawings are superb. Some are basic and uncluttered, others are vibrant and full of life and color, all perfectly capture the story. Grace's story begins with ISBN 0803710402 Amazing Grace (Reading Rainbow Book) and continues with ISBN 0803732600 Princess Grace, ISBN 0142300225 Starring Grace (Chapter, Puffin), ISBN 1845070577 Bravo, Grace! and ISBN 0803729510 Encore, Grace!.

- AnnaLovesBooks