One, Two, Grandpa Loves You

One, Two, Grandpa Loves You is a counting rhyme in the style of the popular English language nursery rhyme One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. Though some versions of the earlier work carried the number sequence to 20 and beyond, Becker has limited herself to just 1-10, though the sequence is fully repeated four times with the text, except that of “One, two”, changing each time.

The first 1-10 sequence begins with Grampa’s coming to pick up his granddaughter to go on a camping trip and concludes with their arrival at the camping area. Sequence two finds the pair simply experiencing their new environment while the third has them hiking, exploring and setting up their campsite, including cooking. The final sequence occurs on the following day as the two play in the water before the grandfather takes his grandchild home.

While Shelly Becker’s words are most worthy, it is Dan Yaccarino’s illustrations which take the book’s content to another level. For example, in the opening spread that accompanies 1-4 from the above Excerpt, Yaccarino clearly establishes the relationship between the grandparent and grandchild. Arms open, the little girl rushes towards her grandfather’s embrace, and should there be any doubt about the pair’s love for each other, it’s erased by the next spread that completes the Excerpt text and which finds the pair in a tight hug, eyes closed. Every grandparent will fondly identify with that image.

While the book’s young audience will rightly want to get through the first reading quickly in order to see what happens, they need to revisit Yaccarino’s illustrations as he has imbedded so much in his artwork. Going back to the opening spread, Yaccarino reinforces that close grandparent/grandchild bond by his having the pair dress alike. That the little girl is keen to be off with her grandfather Yaccarino underlines by having her already wearing her backpack. Readers can assume that it’s early in the day as mom and dad are still in their matching pj’s and slippers. And then there’s the family cat that has adopted the girl’s sleeping roll as its new napping site and deigns to open one eye to investigate the activity created by the grandfather’s arrival. As they go through the book, readers may also become aware of how constrained and crowded the urban portions of the book’s illustrations are in contrast to the open vistas of the camping section.

The closing illustration finds grandfather/grandchild nose to nose, their eyes closed, while the fourth and final complete counting sequence reads:

Nine, ten,
can we go again?

The grandfather’s response introduces a fifth sequence, one left to the readers’ imaginations to complete.

Though the child’s hair style suggests that she is a girl, young male readers will likely ignore that detail, choosing instead to connect with the character’s emotional relationship with a grandparent.

One, Two, Grandpa Loves You belongs in home and library collections and would make an excellent gift for grandfathers, especially new ones.