A New Room For William

by Sally Grindley

'Sally Grindley excels in stories that extend a child's emotional experience without becoming sentimental or precious' The Scotsman When William moves house he does not like his new room. He does not like his new garden and he wants to go back to his old house. But moving is always hard and William's mum persuades him that he would feel much better if he helped choose the wallpaper for his room. Soon William is cheering up - because he chose dinosaur wallpaper - and dinosaurs are his favourite. And he is cheering up because he has met the boy next door with whom he is soon having a great time playing in the tree that they share. Finally William's mother has decorated William's room and he loves it! But just one question remains unanswered. And you have to read the book to find out what it is! A fabulous picture book with brilliantly integrated art and words, working together to masterful, and tear-jerking, effect.

Genres: Picture Books, Divorce

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

William moves into a new house with his mum, and so has a new bedroom. This is a book about change, and getting use to a new environment and learning to love the newness of it all. At the end of the story, there is a nod to a marriage break-up, but this is done in such a sensitive way that some students might read over and even miss. The themes of this book are some that many students may have faced and thus can relate to, and Grindley has written in such a way that makes the themes accessible and easy to explore.

Whilst the illustrations by Thompson compliment and clearly portray what is happening in the story (ie. the text), there are a few pages with quite large chunks of narration, so I would say this book is ideal for a teacher to read to children aged 5 - 7 years old, but this age range might need some help when reading it themselves.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one works not only as a really subtle discussion for kids experiencing the divorce of their parents and moving to new homes, but really just for any kid moving to a new home. It's change and it's weird and that's hard. I think this was a decent one for the collection.

For what it is worth, the main parent in this book is the mother, but she mentions William's dad also having a new room for him.

[Tyra Denine · Rating 4 out of 5]

William is like any other child who finds himself in the middle of a divorce. Fortunately, even though both of his parents had to move to new houses, he slowly finds comfort in the new home with his mom. His mother's gentle nature helps William to adjust to his new environment. At the beginning of the book, he is sad and wants to be alone, but after his mom convinces him to pick out new wallpaper for his room, his excitement soars and before you know it, he's found a friend and some great reasons to be happy about his move.

This book gives children and adult new perspectives on how to approach and deal with the transition into a new place.

[Juliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

B always finds the most interesting books at the library.
This one is about a boy who's parents have divorced and he is having some issues with his new home. Too many things are different and he wants them to go back to the way they used to be. One day mom takes him out and lets him pick out his room decorations, and he and his mother put up dinosaurs all over his room. He loves his new room and is even making a new friend next door.
This book is recommended for young children who's parents are divorced.

[The Styling Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Beautiful illustrations with collage mixed in. Cute self discovery that came from moving in addition to the child dealing with all the emotions of not wanting to move and not wanting to adjust to a new place... Great one to share when approaching the idea of moving.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

To ease the trauma of moving to a new house, featuring dinosaurs.

[Kristin Sprague · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember when I got my own room in our new house.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

topic of divorce