The Matchbox Diary

WOW! I'm not sure I know what to say about this book. I knew when I saw that it was written by Paul Fleischman and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline that it would be a wonderful book. I was not disappointed. The book more than lived up to my expectations. The immigration experience is not a new story, but telling it through the lens of a diary kept by a young boy through small objects he collected and stored in old matchboxes is brilliant. A story told through the objects gathered over a lifetime. The grandfather in the story grew up in Italy and didn't learn to read until moving to America, but he wanted to have a diary so he began collecting items that represented things of importance to him. Each object has seemingly little significance, except in his memory. A tender story of the power of things around us to remind us of important events in our lives.As for the illustrations, they are exquisite. The detail on the acrylic gouache (watercolor) paintings is amazing. The illustrations are so detailed they almost look like old photographs, which is clearly what the artist was going for. The pictures of the great-grandfather with his granddaughter are done in beautiful shades of color while the pictures representing the stories of his past that he tells are in shades of brown and white. The innocence of the children and the kindness and wisdom of the grandfather shine through very clearly. This is the kind of picture book that I love to just sit and look at because of the beauty of it. I highly recommend this story of family and change and life.

I bought this for my grandsons for Xmas, and as soon as it came I sat down to look at it. The book itself is beautiful. Heavy paper, good binding, covers are heavy and solid feeling. Then I opened it up. The story is very simple, not a lot of explaining or detail, which makes it beautiful for children, who sometimes loose track of the story when there are too many details. There is opportunity here for a child's imagination to fill in the blanks. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Life-like yet in the way sepia toned photographs are, dreamy and not quite real. The details in the illustrations fill in where the words don't..I could spend quite a lot of time just going over what turns up in these illustrations! They could quite literally become a whole other story, or two or three.Which is one of the things that makes the Matchbox Diary so special...all of the things in this room tell a story, but the matchboxes tell Great Grandfather's story, and that is what makes this book so special.I cannot wait to read it to my grandsons. P.S. I went to a cigar store and bought a wooden cigar box for $1 and will give it to them after we read the book.

I read this book to my granddaughter who is 6 and in kindergarten. She didn't seem to get it. I am a genealogist and feel the story could have explained more about who ancestors are and how they are related to us in the present time. The pictures are very good. I think I need to read the story several times to her so she can understand it better. Also, we have ancestors from England and Germany but the story only mentioned Italy.

Even though this book is for children, I bought it for my mom who is suffering from dementia. I thought it would be easy for her to read and she could likely relate to the story as it was about a bygone era. She says she read it but I am not sure, so I will probably have to read it to her. Just thought it would be the type of thing to help her use her mind.

Despite the fact that this book is about an Italian grandfather (ours is Danish) and his journey, the story was poignant and the illustrations superb. It was the chronicle of a poor child and his family in a new country. His recollections of a time past were based on memorabilia from his youth, each item carefully placed in matchboxes inside a cigar box. It is an awakening for his granddaughter as they open each small vignette in a successful life. This is a universal look at immigrant grandparents or great-grandparents through their eyes. Bagram Ibatoulline illustrations make this a 5 star rating.

I'm not sure if initially my kids were turned off by the cover art or what, but after some convincing we read the book and they love it (3, 3, and 6). My 6 yr. old obviously understands more, but the younger 2 still get something from it. We talk about geography and how hard it is to be new to something, how much the characters must miss their father/grandmother. Now this book is a frequent request! I can imagine it also being very useful in the classroom through an immigration unit, 4-5 grade?

I am a teacher and bought this to share with my class. It's a wonderful story about a grandfather who immigrated to America from Italy. He tells his grandchild the story through artifacts he collected in matchboxes. You can do a lot with this book. You can teach about immigration, sequencing, or historical fiction. Great story!

The author of this book did a clever job of teaching about diaries, or ways to preserve memories. I think it would be best for children 8 to 10 years old, because they need to have a bit of historical concept. I will be saving the ones I bought until my grandchildren are a little older (now 4 & 6) because I think it will be more meaningful to them in a few years, but I'm glad I bought it.

This is a great book and my class loved it. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is well written.Look up Philips Webbs project on this book (for Y3/4).

Beautiful picture book that’s ideal for upper primary school. Perfect prompt for discussing 20th century history, continuity and change over time, and the meaning of family.

An absolutely delightful book! The two classes I have used the book with thought it was amazing and wrote incredible pieces of writing inspired by this book! The best book I’ve brought in years for the class!

Lovely

Lovely pictures and a lovely story. Shared with a year 6 class who enjoyed it as well as younger children.