The little girl and her Gran are very, very close, and when the little girl’s family must move to a country far away ‘where the lakes freeze in winter’, both of them know that they are going to miss each other hugely. When the little girl goes to Gran’s sewing studio, where she makes beautiful things, she finds that Gran is going to make her a new coat to take to the cold country. The sewing studio is one of the little girl’s very favourite places, and she basks in the warmth of her Gran’s presence and the progress of the coat. She knows that she and her Gran will now be very far from each other, but when Gran says they are connected by the ‘longest strongest thread’ and that Gran will fly to visit the family ‘when the lakes freeze’, she feels sad but more accepting. The text is all in the little girl’s head, and we understand her emotion. We also see their love in the illustrations, the two of them amongst shapes and colours, threads and patterns on a white background. Moving and a little sad, but also hopeful and quite lovely.