A touching portrayal of the loss of a grandparent.¿When summer started, I got Grampa's stopwatch,¿ a small child says. ¿I don't want his stopwatch. I want him.¿ Grampa used to time everything. A race to the end of the street and back: 24 seconds. Eating bubblegum ice cream: 1 minute, 58 seconds. But now, Grampa's gone. ¿There are no more Grampa minutes, Grampa seconds,¿ the child says. ¿Time just stops.¿ But as time goes on, the stopwatch becomes a cherished symbol of remembrance, and the child uses it to carry on Grampa's favorite pastimes and traditions.A treasured ritual from the past can sometimes offer the perfect bridge to the future.

Loretta Garbutt is a children's bookseller and voice actor based in Toronto, Ontario. She has played the voice of Valerie on the beloved children's television series Max and Ruby and the voice of Franklin the Turtle. A Stopwatch from Grampa is her debut picture book.