Author(s): Amy Hest

Children's Books

With subtlety and tenderness, Amy Hest tells the tale of an elderly man and a young boy linked by the common pursuit of learning to read, captured in expressive watercolors by Jon J Muth. George can't read. A hundred years old, and he never learned how. "That must be corrected," says George. George Baker and Harry don't seem the likeliest of friends. But sitting side by side on George's porch in the morning, waiting for the school bus to come, the two have plenty in common -- this hundred-year-old musician with the crookedy fingers going tappidy on his knees and the young schoolboy whose shoelaces always need tying. They're both learning to read, and it's hard. What's easy is the warm friendship they share. In an inspired pairing, a best-selling author and illustrator pay quiet tribute to the power of language and intergenerational bonds.