The Books

Granny Gomez and Jigsaw

by Deborah Underwood
Illustrated by Scott Magoon

One Potato Review

This is simply a cheerful little yarn narrated with the same plucky enthusiasm that Granny Gomez herself brings to every one of her hobbies and avocations: drumming and mountain climbing and, yes, jigsaw puzzles. Don’t ask why it has to be a pig she adopts – it just does – though by the time Jigsaw outgrows even her big country house, there’s no reason to think she won’t be able to single-handedly construct an alternative living arrangement with supplies from the hardware store and a manual called Barn Building for Beginners. This book is like that a little – even for all of Magoon’s and Deborah Underwood’s experience, there’s an amateur’s delight in the details: those drums which probably do not need to be mentioned in any industry pitches, or the bit about Jigsaw compulsively chewing Granny’s skis in two as he gets older, or the fact of their watching cooking shows together. These things do not get a books sold, or more prominently shelved or reviewed, and yet they are why we keep reading; you know it when they’re gone.

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