The Sunsets of Miss Olivia Wiggins

This book is TERRIBLE!! I cried through the whole thing!! I hate to cry!! This book is WELL written and BEAUTIFUL!! This book is a look into the life of an Alzheimer's grandparent. The visits, the silence, the heart ache of watching your elderly with their blank looks but how we need to visit anyway. Momma Olivia's memories are trapped in her thoughts but she cannot vocalize, shes trapped by Alzheimer's. The illustrations are perfect the book is also a reminder if the rich heritage that our grandparents cherish and hold. HUG your grandparent TODAY!!! I would read this book to kids on grandparents day, in relation to a trip to a nursing home, or around the holidays, or projects about family history. The emotion is STRONG but the reality show more is true!! Its a hard subject to understand but the story reads simply so kids of any age can understand at least part of it. Grades ANY show less

I found this book to be very touching, through the use of the repetitive language and flashbacks. Miss Olivia Wiggins lives at a nursing home, but her daughter and great grandson have come to visit. Miss Olivia has Alzheimer’s and can barely speak or share her thoughts anymore, but the author expresses that Miss Olivia still has a lot going through her mind and a lot to give. The author does this by using repetitive language throughout the story, as she expresses that Miss Olivia is “staring at nothing and at everything all at the same time.” Although Miss Olivia Wiggins now has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t speak, she was once a young woman who had plenty to say. This is seen through her many flashbacks of her back in the day. One show more of her flashbacks showed Miss Olivia spending her Sunday’s in the spring with Ned and her feelings of knowing she would marry him one day. These flashbacks allow the reader to see Miss Olivia in a way that they cannot see her with Alzheimer’s now. Both the repetitive language and the flashbacks help the reader to see who Miss Olivia really is beyond her disease. Overall, I think the big idea is to understand that there is a lot more to every ill individual than his or her disease. By understanding, one can be compassionate to who the individual really is and what they have experienced in their life. show less

This was realistic fiction because any one could be in this story. Many people have had relatives grow old and seem to forget everything.
The illustrations in this book are wonderful. They depict Olivia in a way that shows her age and the distance in her eyes, but the reader still comes to love her. The illustrations also show Olivia's memories in in great detail and are time appropriate. The pages alternate between present day at the nursing home and a memory that is sparked. The illustrations are very well done.
Media: Watercolor

This book allows children to make a connection with a grandparent. It will allow them to recall memories of their own lives. This book also shows how one simple object can help recall a previous experience. This book makes me think about all of the different experiences I have had with my grandparents.

Great Grandparents are normally fairly old. The great grandmother in this story does not remember much of who people are because of old age, but the narrative shows the readers what she thinks about. She thinks of when she was growing up and when she was young like her great grandson.
The genre in this book makes it a good realistic fiction because old age is a definte fact of life and this book showed exactly what it is like to have a great grandparent that is beginning to forget.
A teacher could use this book in a classroom to teach their children that old age is a fact of life and we will all reach that point someday. The teacher could also use this as an opportunity to teach children how to behave and act towards the elderly and how show more they need just as much love and company as they do.
Media: Watercolor
The setting in this story takes place in a nursing home where the great grandmother lives. This is also an excellent teaching tool because students can learn about nursing homes and what takes place in a nursing home. The setting is necessary in this story because it shows the life of the elderly woman when she was younger and now the life she leads now with little freedom and independance. show less

This book made me sad even though the boy and his grandma go to visit his great grandmother, she does interact with them because she is really old.

This book is a very heart warming story. I think that people of all ages would love this book!