Before She Was My Grandmother - by Giselle Potter (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From celebrated illustrator Giselle Potter, a beautiful and memorable story about the special bond between a grandparent and a grandchild.

Whenever I visit my grandmother Alice, we love sitting together and telling each other stories. My favorite part is when she takes out her box of special things and we pass them back and forth. Each object--a doll, a sketchbook, shells and stones, and more--is a clue to a bigger story: the story of her life before she was my grandmother.

Before she was my grandmother, she too was a young girl, with a life very different from my own. Little by little, the stories she tells and the objects she shares from her memory box reveal the many facets of her life, along with her great spirit, with its many colors and tones.

Written and illustrated by the award-winning picture book maker Giselle Potter, Before She Was My Grandmother celebrates strong and loving family connections, as well as the little moments and mementos of childhood that we carry with us all our lives--and pass on to the next generation. It's also a touching reminder of how every life is so much richer and more multifaceted than any single identity or role.

Review Quotes

A Children's Book Council Hot Off the Press selection, August 2025!

"Written and illustrated with characteristic sublimity by Giselle Potter. Here is a tender account of a child's connection with a grandparent, which also tells of the older woman's life before the girl was born... Buoyant and appealing."--Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal

"Eloquent, elegant, simple, charming, engaging, and a fun read from cover to cover, Before She Was My Grandmother by author/illustrator Giselle Potter is especially and unreservedly recommended for family, elementary school, and community library picture book collections for children ages 5-8."--Midwest Book Review

"Generational lore takes a front seat in this tale of a grandmother's life and keepsakes... The book concludes with the suggestion that perhaps the grandchild might someday make a memory box, too; teachers seeking ideas for original projects will find inspiration here."--Kirkus

"The book is about what it means to understand other people's complexities and how one can pass on a family history to the next generation... The abiding lesson is that every life is more than you can see."--Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production (A School Library Journal blog)

"The young narrator of this intimate-feeling picture book cherishes time with her attentive grandmother, Alice--especially when the woman brings out a box of treasured mementos... The creator's aesthetic seems to flow directly from Alice's own hand, and themes of creativity, mindfulness, and persistence thread through this thoughtful work about how 'everyone has a story that is much bigger than the part you can see.'"--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Giselle Potter is the award-winning illustrator of over 30 books for children, some written by herself and others by such authors as Toni Morrison, Mary Pope Osborne, Ursula Hegi, Mathea Harvey, and Gertrude Stein. She also illustrated a column for The New York Times called "Ties." She lives with her husband and two daughters in the Hudson Valley.