In Warabé Aska’s lovely new picture book, a young Spanish boy learns that his grandfather still harbours his childhood dreams. With gentle words and evocative illustrations, Aska depicts the life of an elderly furniture maker nicknamed Tapicero Tap Tap, who put aside his yearning to travel the world after war changed his family’s fortunes. Telling his story to his grandchildren and their friends, he assures them that he learned to appreciate the tastes and customs of home and to accept that his dreams could be realized where he lived.

The grandfather vividly describes his young self performing in the local fiesta and waiting by the seaside to hear the fishermen’s stories. Aska’s expressive descriptions are matched by his illustrations. The richness of the Spanish countryside and its customs – winemaking, furniture making, street parades – is beautifully rendered in finely detailed oil paintings.

Here, too, is meaningful interplay between generations, a strong, warm connection between old man and child, and a confirmation of the range of experience and humanity of grandparents – the complexities of their lives, an exploration of their youths, and the continuity of their dreams. For having told his grandchildren and their friends that he regrets none of his choices thus far, he informs them that now he will travel across the sea in search of new experiences.

Tapicero Tap Tap’s hammer goes tap tap tap, the narrator tells us, and the sea, which he lives near, goes lap lap lap; in that simple wordplay lies the heart of this moving story. Those two sounds surround and animate the old man’s life.