The Sleeping Grandmother – Roberto Parmeggiani and João Vaz de Carvalho – Kalandraka

My grandmother sleeps.
My grandmother sleeps all day.
My grandmother has been sleeping all day, for a month...

"The Sleeping Grandmother" presents with sensitivity, tenderness and closeness, the close relationship between a boy and his grandmother, who becomes ill. The poetic tone of the text is complemented by the simple illustrations based on soft colors made with pencil, watercolor and pastel. Also noteworthy is the subtlety with which Roberto Parmeggiane – evoking his own sentimental memory – narrates the process of the disease, from the moment when the protagonists shared time, readings and affection, when the illness had not yet manifested itself, through the first symptoms and the lethargy of the irreversible sleep that the grandson compensates with his company; even a denouement in the form of a short story... João Vaz de Carvalho uses beautiful visual metaphors to represent the flow of time, loss, absence and remembrance.

This timeless narrative takes place in a familiar environment, far from the cold and impersonal environment of hospitals and nursing homes. It conveys emotion, serenity and love. It is a sincere tribute to a fundamental figure in the childhood of any human being: grandmothers and grandfathers.