New children’s books center intergenerational relationships in life and the afterlife

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2026

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Intergenerational relationships take center stage in two new children’s books. First, in The One About the Blackbird, a little boy learns to play guitar from his grandfather and they form a deep bond over music. In today’s episode, author Melanie Florence and illustrator Matt James join NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe to discuss their collaboration and shared love of The Beatles. Then, And They Walk On deals with a heavy topic: Where do our loved ones go after they die? Author Kevin Maillard and illustrator Rafael López spoke with Rascoe about “walking on” and incorporating Seminole culture in their story.

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Transcript

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0:26.4	Hi there. You're listening to NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Timberdi Armias. Today, two picture books about how we connect with loved ones. In a minute, a story about honoring and remembering people we've lost. But first, we hear from Melanie Florence and Matt James about their new book, The One About the Blackbird. It's about a little boy learning to play the guitar from his grandfather, and they bond over an iconic Beatles song.
0:30.5	The author and illustrator spoke about it on NPR's Weekend Edition.
0:38.3	In the children's book, The One About the Blackbird, a young boy learns to play guitar from his grandfather.
0:41.7	And there's one song in particular that they love.
0:45.6	Are we allowed to say what song is kind of associated?
0:48.9	I mean, it's kind of obvious what song I'm referring to,
0:50.5	although I couldn't really say it. The one about in the dead of night.
0:59.2	The one about the Blackbird is written by Melanie Florence and illustrated by Matt James.
1:00.2	For our series, Picture This, they talk about their shared love of the Beatles.
1:05.0	My parents had that on vinyl and were big Beatles fans.
1:11.5	And, I mean, Matt, what did you think?
1:13.4	Totally, Blackbird by The Beatles by Paul McCartney.
1:17.0	I am a huge Beatles fan, which, you know, get in line.
1:20.7	Once I wrote a letter to George Harrison when I was a kid,
1:24.3	and I was like, you have like 500 guitars.
1:26.4	I don't have any.
1:28.6	You could just send me one,
1:29.7	like you're worse one.
1:38.0	You are only waiting for this moment to be free. Blackbird fly.
1:43.4	The one about the Blackbird, like a lot of stuff I've written, it's an intergenerational love story. It's about the connection between a little boy and his grandfather and their shared love of music. Unlike a lot of children's books, it kind of goes very quickly full circle from the little boy and his grandfather to a grown-up and his grandfather. And so it's a very full-circle relationship
2:04.4	that shows how music connects us and how when somebody is dealing with, in this case,
2:13.2	although we don't say it, dealing with dementia or Alzheimer's, and maybe forgetting a lot of things,
	...

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