Sweet, Sweet Memory -- Jacqueline Woodson, Hardcover

Jacqueline Woodson's evocative story about the power of sharing memories, with glorious illustrations by Tonya Engel

The earth changes, Sarah's grandpa always said as they worked together in his garden. Like us, some part of it never dies. Everything and everyone goes on and on.

Now that Grandpa's gone, though, it's hard for Sarah to imagine "on and on" without him. But when loved ones gather to share stories of Grandpa, she begins to understand how much he meant to so many people. And when the harvest comes in and family and friends gather for a sunset supper, they make sweet new memories, reminding Sarah that everything and everyone truly does go on and on.

Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
ISBN: 9780593530849
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 3
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 49500 / Sweet, Sweet Memory

About the Author
Jacqueline Woodson (JacquelineWoodson.com) received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the Children's Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2022 Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence, and was the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and an NAACP Image Award. Her dozens of books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and the picture book Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Tonya Engel (TonyaEngelArt.com) also illustrated Yaya and the Sea (by Karen Good Marable), Because Claudette (by Tracey Baptiste), My Hair Is Magic (by M. L. Marroquin), Rise! (by Bethany Hegedus), and Beacon of Hope: The Life of Barack Obama (by Doreen Rappaport). She has had studios in New York, Paris, Houston, Spain, and Austin, where she lives now.