Our Pebbles

In a tenderly told story, the creator of Thank You and The Boy with Flowers in His Hair explores small moments that were once shared by a child and grandad on a pebble beach.

Grandad always knows the best way to go to Pebble Beach. As they climb the dunes, he and his grandchild can smell the sea before they see it. There they meet a seal and find old pirate wood. They have melty ice cream. And every time, before saying goodbye to the beach, they each pick a pebble. “Do you know this pebble is older than me?” Grandad says with a twinkle in his eye. In a wistful musing on memory, loss, and love, Jarvis offers a medley of moments—Grandad’s silly dance with the wiggly knees; the two of them smushing together and painting their day the best they could. With lyrical prose and gentle, sun-kissed illustrations, he shows us such memories are always there for the taking, as lasting as pebbles on the beach.

Jarvis is the creator of the picture books The Boy with Flowers in His Hair; Thank You; Follow Me, Flo!; Tropical Terry; and Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth among others. He is also the author-illustrator of a chapter-book series about Bear and Bird and the illustrator of Pick a Pine Tree, Pick a Pumpkin, Pick a Perfect Egg, and Together with You, all by Patricia Toht, as well as Oh, Are You Awake? by Bob Shea. An animator who has worked as a record jacket designer and an animation director, Jarvis lives in Manchester, England.