A young girl knows that her grand­fa­ther, whom she calls Pop­py, has died and is no longer with her, but she miss­es him ter­ri­bly and con­tin­ues to search for him all over the house. He can’t be found in the pot of chick­en soup sim­mer­ing on the stove; he isn’t under the kitchen sink or in between books on the crowd­ed shelves. Where is Pop­py? Her lov­ing fam­i­ly is there for her, but no one can replace him. Then, dur­ing a Passover seder, mem­o­ries of Pop­py arise, and she real­izes that his influ­ence is every­where. It is inside each of the family’s rit­u­als and remains an inte­gral part of who they are.

In an author’s note, Car­o­line Kusin Pritchard intro­duces read­ers to Melvin Kusin, her grand­fa­ther and the man on whom Pop­py is based. Just like Pop­py, he taught her that tra­di­tions will always hold the fam­i­ly togeth­er. Read­ers learn that mem­o­ries of loved ones live on and con­tin­ue to shape their lives.