If we show our childhood again, we will laugh first, then cry bitterly, and finally hang on to tears and smile and go to sleep.
--Hayao Miyazaki
Yes, childhood for everyone, there will be an indelible past.
Maybe he didn't listen carefully to the lecture during class, and then he was pulled to the podium by the male teacher with heavy glasses and big eyes who angrily pulled his ear to the podium punishment station;
Maybe he broke the glass that my mother liked, and quietly took the glass and threw it away...
"Grandma's Blue Tin Cabinet Wheelchair" is a beautiful picture book. It tells the story of the protagonist's childhood: his mother asked him to serve food to his grandmother, who had bad legs and feet, but he ran away without watching the old and confused grandmother eat, and when he came back, he secretly dumped the food that his grandmother did not remember to eat, and he also stole the money wrapped in a handkerchief in his grandmother's tin wheelchair to buy snacks to eat... The main line of the story is very simple, but after reading it, people feel depressed and moved to cry.
Liu Maoning, author of "Grandma's Blue Tin Cabinet Wheelchair", the story in the picture book is the real experience of his childhood. Liu Maoning is an animation director and author of picture books and comics. His works "Me and the Magnet and a Dead Friend" and "Grandma's Blue Tin Cabinet Wheelchair" are all beloved works of children and big friends.
Let's take a look at several characters in the story, each with its own characteristics.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" >, the little protagonist who steals money</h1>
The story is told in the first person about the childhood experience of the author Liu Maoning. Let's call the protagonist Little Mao Ning.
Because grandma's legs and feet were inconvenient, Xiao Maoning's mother used a blue tin cabinet to ask someone to make a wheelchair for grandma to sit on.
Grandma put her usual small belongings in the drawer of the tin cabinet wheelchair, including wooden combs, money wrapped in handkerchiefs...
While helping her grandmother find a wooden comb, Xiao Maoning found the money wrapped in a handkerchief. This is a big temptation for Little Mao Ning: the scorched pastry sticks picked by the uncle who travels the streets and alleys can be exchanged for money. That crispy pastry was so delicious.
Xiao Maoning stole his grandmother's money for the first time, bought a scorched pastry stick and ate it in a different way, and was very happy. Later, he stole his grandmother's money several times.
For a childhood child, delicious snacks are really irresistible.
Until one day, Little Mao Ning came back from playing outside and found his grandmother counting the money in the handkerchief. His first reaction was that his grandmother found out that he had stolen money, he was afraid, guilty, he did not know how his grandmother and mother were going to punish him, he ran outside and hid.
When he had to come home because it was dark and he felt cold, his mother asked him to bring food to his grandmother. Little Mao Ning finally sat and watched his grandmother eat for the first time.
He noticed that there were so many wrinkles on his grandmother's face, that her throat made noises when she ate, and that she had only three teeth left.
At this time, Xiao Maoning must have many regrets in his heart: regret that he did not watch his grandmother eat before, let his grandmother go hungry, and regret that he stole his grandmother's money. Xiao Maoning couldn't control himself, and the tears couldn't stop flowing.
When Grandma held out her big hand to wipe Mao Ning's tears, she said, "Don't cry, don't cry, there is Grandma here." Xiao Maoning's tears still couldn't be stopped. It was at this time that Little Mao Ning suddenly grew up.
The touch of affection made Xiao Maoning a well-behaved child, he drilled a hole in the handle of his grandmother's comb, put on a rope and hung it around his grandmother's neck, so that her grandmother could use the comb at any time. This is the act of a child who has made a mistake to redeem his merits.
He felt guilty when he found out that grandma had forgotten to eat; he was scared and uncomfortable when he knew grandma had found out that he had "stolen money"; he was moved to tears when he felt his grandmother's warm love.
We can't say that little Mao Ning is a bad boy. He was indeed a bit playful and couldn't resist the temptation of snacks. But he was also obedient and filial.
Besides, whose childhood did not do anything wrong, did not have regrets.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="112" > second, grandma's inclusive love</h1>
What made Little Mao Ning grow up instantly was because of her grandmother's warm love.
Mom asked Xiao Mao Ning to serve rice to Grandma, watching Grandma finish eating and then bring the bowl back to the kitchen.
This is because the mother knows that the grandmother's brain is not clear, and she deliberately asks Xiao Mao ning to watch the grandmother eat.
However, the playful little Mao Ning often put down the bowl and left. When he came back from playing, he found that his grandmother forgot to eat, because he was afraid of being scolded by his mother, he secretly threw away the meal, and the hungry grandmother never "complained" to Xiao Maoning's mother.
Xiao Maoning stole the money wrapped in the handkerchief in his grandmother's blue tin wheelchair several times to buy snacks, and his grandmother found out. But Grandma never said it either.
In that period when material life was not very good, almost no parent would take the initiative to give money to their children to buy snacks to eat. However, adults also understand the gluttonous nature of childhood children.
Sometimes, adults spoil children and deliberately close their eyes not to see the small mistakes made by children.
When Xiao Maoning shed tears in front of her grandmother because of guilt, her grandmother wiped Xiao Maoning's tears with her rough hands, while warmly comforting Xiao Maoning: "Don't cry, don't cry, there is Grandma." ”
The short two sentences are also the climax of this picture book story, coupled with exquisite drawing pages, which simply immerse the reader in the scene. It directly touches the reader's mixed emotions. I was suddenly in a heat wave coming up from my throat, and then I was in tears with little Mao Ning.
When Little Mao Ning was ashamed and embarrassed, Grandma protected his young heart with inclusive love. This is what many adults can't do now, and when they find that children have made mistakes, many people are either worried that children don't have a long memory, and they will make the same mistakes in the future, or they are loud reprimands or even scolding, or they are repeatedly reasoning with children.
What a warm grandmother. In your childhood, did you have such a grandmother and grandmother to accompany you?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="116" > third, mom also has regrets</h1>
In the story, the mother's pen and ink are not very much.
But Little Mao Ning's mother was definitely a filial daughter.
She got married, but she took her elderly mother, who had inconvenient legs and feet, to support her. It's not the water that the daughter who marries out, as people say, spills.
But her mother should be very busy at work, she just cooked the rice, told Xiao Maoning to give it to her grandmother to eat, she did not know that Xiao Maoning secretly dumped the rice that her grandmother forgot to eat, and she did not know that Xiao Maoning stole her grandmother's money to buy snacks.
Later, my ninety-something grandmother was taken over by my uncle in the winter to celebrate the New Year, and it was also in that winter that my grandmother died. Mom took Grandma's blue tin wheelchair home again.
Here, you can see your mother's reluctance to your grandmother. What Grandma used, she was reluctant to throw away. This is the deep nostalgia of the departing parents of the children, as well as the sadness of "the son wants to be raised but the relatives are not there".
Mao Ning did not know until he became an adult, knowing that his friends also had the experience of stealing money from the family, and he also had shame and fear, and he decided to tell his mother about stealing his grandmother's money in his childhood. He wanted to know what his mother thought, even if she scolded him.
Unexpectedly, after hearing him steal money, my mother said that she was very sorry that she did not buy her an electric blanket for warmth when her grandmother was alive.
In this way, the wise mother untied Mao Ning's heart knot.
Liu Maoning suddenly understood that adults, like children, would have secrets in their hearts and would not have the opportunity to tell them, so he was relieved and let go of the burden he had carried because of stealing money many years ago.
As an adult, Liu Maoning chose to write out the story of his childhood, which I think is a way for him to redeem his soul. Ever since he knew that his grandmother had found himself stealing money, but he did not say it through, let alone scold him, his psychology was saddled with a heavy shackle in his heart, he felt ashamed, he was afraid, he did not dare to admit his mistake to his grandmother, did not dare to say it to others.
When Liu Maoning presented this picture book to us to see, he finally let go of the mistakes he made in his childhood. His grandmother saw his apology letter and must have forgiven him.
"Grandma's Blue Tin Cabinet Wheelchair" describes an ordinary little story between the three generations of grandchildren in ordinary people's families, showing the love and regret in ordinary families. The picture book depicts and shows the pictures of rural farmers working and children beating persimmons; there are also craftsmen walking in the streets, snacks and crisp sticks from childhood, and some living furniture used in the family, which is very life-like.
Well worth reading for kids and big friends.