“Sundays when I was small, that Gran of mine was good at hiding. The first time I played hide-and-seek with her and the older grandchildren, she disguised me as the pillow on the bed that Gramps had carved long ago for my father. Nobody found me.” – The Hickory Chair

This enchanting picture book is a delight! When lively and creative Gran dies, the whole family assembles to hear her will read. Gran was the best at hide-and-seek and loved to hide messages for her loved ones to find. Her will-reading is no different.

“To each of my favorite people, I leave a note hiding in one of my favorite things. Keep those things. Sell whatever’s left and split the money between Candy-May, Lofton, and Louis Senior.”

The family laughed. Oh, how much gran loved a good game of hide-and-seek. And, with great merriment, the family combs the whole house looking for hidden notes attached to treasure. 

Louis is the narrator of this story and, according to Gran, he has blind-sight. He, like her, could find anything. Many of the notes end up being found by him. But not one of them was the treasure that Gran had intended for her youngest grandchild. 

“Could Gran have left the notes before he was born and then forgotten to add his?”

Many Sundays passed with the family cleaning the house, looking for that one note, and Louis sitting in Gran’s favorite hickory chair that Grandpa had carved for her so many years ago. But, on the last Sunday, when everything finally had to go, Louis’s father tells him to just pick out something for his own. Louis knew what he wanted – that hickory chair. 

For years, Louis loved that chair. Then, one day, when he is as old as Gran was when she died, his own favorite youngest grandchild is sitting in that chair and buries her hand deep inside the cushion where she finds a note . . .

Learn more about The Hickory Chair by Lisa Rose Fraustino at Biblioguides.