Mei Mei and her Gong Gong (grandfather) share their knowledge with one another in this sweet picture-book from author Sylvia Liu and illustrator Christina Forshay. After Gong Gong teaches his granddaughter some of the tai chi he practices, she in turn teaches him some of the yoga poses she has been learning in class. Whatever activity they are engaged in, whatever pose they are striking, their love for one another shines through...

I enjoyed A Morning With Grandpa, and thank the friend who brought it to my attention. The story is engaging, and captures the differences in personality and age between grandfather and granddaughter, as Mei Mei cavorts through her tai chi lesson, and Gong Gong creaks through this his yoga session. I greatly appreciated the fact that the story compares and contrasts two culturally distinct traditions of body movement - the author's afterword gives more information about both - subtly demonstrating that cultural exchange is a good thing. This lesson is more important now than ever, with cultural vandals and essentialists determined to separate people with concepts like "cultural appropriation." The accompanying artwork from Forshay was colorful and cute, capturing Mei Mei and Gong Gong's changing expressions quite well.

All in all, this is well worth the time of any picture-book readers looking for stories about the loving bond between grandparents and children, featuring Asian-American families, or promoting the idea of cultural exchange. ( )

A lively granddaughter is interested in her grandfather's tai chi practice. He teaches her some forms, which she adopts with her own flair; then she teaches him some of the yoga poses she's learned at school.

Back matter includes illustrations and descriptions/instructions of some different forms and poses. ( )

The book celebrates relationships with grandparents and the joy of being physically active together. Sylvia expertly uses similes and metaphors in a child friendly way, introducing emergent readers to the richness of language. A truly beautiful picture book to share with a child. ( )

A girl named Mei sees her grandfather doing Tai Chi outside and it catches her attention. She is eager to know what it is and joins him. After doing some Tai Chi, Mei wants to show her grandpa how to do Yoga. After they have practiced each others arts, they bow to each other. This book is in the Lakewood Pierce College Library, and is for ages 5 to 8.