Ten year old Hannah and her Grandad are very close. He has looked after her after school for many years, and they share everything of importance in their lives with each other. When Grandad begins to lose his memory, Hannah refuses to believe there can be anything really wrong. She tries to hide from her loving family and her friends his growing disability, but it is impossible to do so, and when he has a stroke soon after promising her that he has an important story to tell her, something about a whale and the 18th of August and the most important thing in the world, she knows she must discover the story herself in order to help him. There follows a moving narrative about an island and an old lady, Miss Bennett, who takes pictures and knows all about the local past. As Grandad becomes ever more confused and the decision is made that he must go into a home, Hannah becomes frantic about finding some way to bring him back to himself and his memories. The beginning of the novel has much to say about Grandad's growing Alzheimer's and the all-too-noticeable problems he is having, and it will ring lots of bells with those who have lived with the condition. Written in poetic language and involving lots of understanding people, including Hannah's older sister, Jodie, it is a lovely story about love and its power to help people do unexpected things for the best of reasons, and while Hannah must accept in the end that Grandad will not be able to come home, she knows that she has discovered the story he meant to tell her and has done her best to preserve his memories in herself; in his moments of clarity they are still close. A book full of love and understanding. Black and white illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and scattered through the story provide soft-focus realism in a gentle way.