Your Grandmother Raised Monarchs: and Other Wonders Before Your Time

While resting and writing in a hermitage on stilts in the woods, John Coleman, a Lutheran pastor and creator of the website A Napper’s Companion, begins a year-long conversation with his grandchildren, who haven’t been born yet. Any subject is on the table: Charles Darwin’s care for a languishing beetle, the need for bean broth in a Home Economics class, the disappearance of Harriet the squirrel, the Elephant Man’s heroism, one recipe for Oh! Be Joyful (Civil War soldiers’ rotgut), and plenty more. When his grandchildren come of age, John Coleman will hand them Your Grandmother Raised Monarchs with this advice: “On good days, you probably won’t pick up this book. On bad days, though, when your throat tightens and your eyes water up, read a few pages. And on your worst days, turn to these words: ‘Before you were born, your grandfather sat up in the trees and loved you ahead of time.’” When they put down Your Grandmother Raised Monarchs, the author’s grandchildren and all the adults reading over their shoulders will feel as though they’ve spent time in an interesting, loving, and hopeful land, and part of them will wish they could stay for good.