WILFRID GORDON McDONALD PARTRIDGE by Mem Fox,...

WILFRID GORDON McDONALD PARTRIDGE by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julie Vivas (Kane/Miller: $9.95; 32 pp.; ages 5 to 10). Adults will likely turn the last page with a pang, then will read again this beautiful, gentle story about aging. Whether a child is listening or not.

Young Wilfrid Gordon lives next door to a nursing home and is best friends with 96-year-old Miss Nancy, to whom he tells his secrets. When she loses her memory, he decides to find it for her with the confidence only an innocent can have.

“What’s a memory?” he asks his elderly friends. Each responds differently, and while adult readers might feel a tugging inside, children will swing right along with Wilfrid, who simply translates the abstract answers into things he can gather in a basket for Miss Nancy.

Spread across the title pages, the artist shows Wilfrid’s friends in wicker chairs, their backs to us, with one chair empty. Then the final, wordless illustration is also of an empty chair, Miss Nancy’s. A subtle foreshadowing, perhaps.

For a topic often spoken of in euphemisms, the author has displayed warmth, wit and dignity without being sappy. The spongeable cover and dreamy watercolors complement this uplifting tale.