Granpa

by John Burningham

Adorable Granpa gamely nurses his granddaughter’s dolls, eats her pretend strawberry-flavored ice cream, takes her tobogganing in the snow, and falls in step with her imaginary plans to captain a ship to Africa—like all good grandfathers should. Winner of the Kate Maschler Award, this poignant tale of friendship and loss is one children will long remember.

Genres: Picture Books, Family, Friendship, Childrens, Death, Grief, Adventure

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 1984

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bur...

Married to Helen Oxenbury They have one son and two daughters.

John Burningham was born in 1936 in Farnham, Surrey, and attended the alternative school, Summerhill. In 1954 he spent two years travelling through Italy, Yugoslavia and Israel, working at a variety of jobs.

From 1956-1959, he studied at the Central School of Art, after which he designed posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. He also spent a year on an animated puppet film in the Middle East. He then became a writer and illustrator of children's books, his first book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers (1963) winning the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963, an achievement he repeated with Mr Gumpy's Outing (1970).

Since then, he has written and illustrated many children's books. He is also a freelance designer of murals, exhibitions models, magazine illustrations and advertisements.

Reviews

[Rebecca Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet book that highlights the importance of spending time with loved ones whilst you still can. Shows how loss can leave a hole in someone’s life.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the saddest book I have ever read. Truly wonderful and gentle story yet I never fail to get a tear at the end. A valuable book for the children's bookshelf.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things I liked:
-the girl's random questions about the world
-the relationship is very sweet
-the end (where the Granpa dies) leaves it open for parents to discuss death with their children, which seems important

Things I didn't like:
-in some of the illustrations the colour is too muted for me--it should be brighter!
-I'm not sure what to think of this book's disjointed, vignette structure...do kids get it? I feel like it might be hard to match the pictures and the words when you get a new context/situation every 2 pages.

[Fabiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

muito sensível e poético

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little confusing at first, I think young children may struggle with the concept of this book but it does show the importance of spending time with the people you love as they won’t always be there.

Love the illustrations.

[Iqra Fiaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect example of the complimentary relationship between words and illustrations. Without the illustrations, the story would not be whole but without the words, the illustrations would not flow.

This story tells the powerful message of spending time with those that matter to you whilst you still have the chance to. A lovely story about true friendship.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the saddest book I have ever read. Truly wonderful and gentle story yet I never fail to get a tear at the end. A valuable book for the children's bookshelf.

[Zoe Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book highlights the importance of making the most of time with our loved ones. It highlights how a loss can leave a hole in the life and change the room.

[Charlie Soame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very sad for a picture book

[Chloe Pike]

This book was confusing to begin with but once I read it over a couple of times and talked through it with friends, I came to realise it was actually a very emotional story. The ending is captivating with the Grandpa not being there and the little girl feeling lost. It is a book a lot of people can relate to if having lost a family member.

[Kerry Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew this would make me cry and it did! As someone who has recently lost their own grandad I identified a lot with the little girl in the story and thought the relationship between the two characters was beautiful.

[Catherine Cumberlidge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picture book with a small number of words. It took me a minute to get the hang of the way it was written, with only snapshots into the conversation between "Granpa" and his granddaughter, rather than a complete story, because a large part of it is told with the illustrations. Each snapshot of words and pictures shows how Granpa shares his life and pleasures, passing them on to his granddaughter. He humours her joyfully in her imaginary games and throws himself whole-heartedly into playing with her. There is a strong sense of the unconditional love that you only get from family, the bond broken only by death (very sadly near the end of the book); or is it really broken...? After losing her Granpa she is seen running around, playing, with a baby in a pram and a dog, his spirit always with her. A very sweet book, dealing with the death of a grandparent and how they will always be in our hearts.

[Sarah Stirrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sweetest little children’s book for one of my favourite short films growing up, Granpa. It was only ever released on video cassette, although luckily it is available to watch on YouTube. They say it never was released further because of its content, an older grandfather. The book is sort of hard to come by and doesn’t entirely capture the whimsy and magic of the film. You have to watch it to fill in the gaps of the book. If you can I would highly recommend finding the film on YouTube. Easy to search, just put granpa, it’s animated in the British line drawing style, similar to The Snowman. I loved it growing up and it still holds lovely memories for me today, especially since both my grandfathers are no longer here.

[Christie Kaaland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burningham perfectly depicts the abstract scattered dialogue between young children and granpas who have a... touch of senility maybe? Their relationship is all over the board as the jump freely together from one idea to the next. The young girl queries, and granpa has already moved on as well (and so has she) so no need to answer her questions. The illustrations are fascinating: brief sketches on the verso, more detailed pastel on the recto, some illustrations a dreamstate, some representing the girl's question topics. Winner of multiple awards, this is an artistic abstraction typical of Burningham.

[Andy Verschoyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

cover warm and possible does not need the title - kid flying downhill in a gocart with ...granpa
guiding use of armchair, roundtable, pipe etc
4 media - colour pictures, monochrome, granpa's words, child's words in italics
the art is in the selection of picture content - styling is economic - compare for example sean tan wealth of paint and colour.

when you get a page full of detail, look at it all

when you get an almost empty page - again look at it all

its a powerful book to address a big issue

[Francesca Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about a little girl and her Grandpa with all the adventures they get up to. This includes, going to the beach and playing in the garden. Some of it is imaginary play too. The little girl is very inquisitive and asks her Grandpa lots of questions. Some are rhetorical such as ‘What if you were to catch a whale?’ The questions are made very explicit to the reader as they are written in italics. The last page is sad as the Grandpa is no longer sat in his armchair which suggests he is no longer around.

[Laura]

Initially this can be a little confusing as instead of a cohesive plot each page simply offers a small snapshot into a little girl's days with her Granpa...planting seeds, going to the beach, eating pretend icecream, etc. But at the end, Granpa's green armchair is empty. This really affected me as a child (maybe because my own grandpa had a very similar armchair, and took me on adventures), and I think it could be a good book to use with children to open up discussions about loss and bereavement.

[Clemmie Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book purposefully leaves many gaps for children to ask questions, just as the little girl does to her 'Granpa' in this book. Very funny questions that remind you of questions children have asked you before, for example 'Do worms go to heaven?'. Introduces deeper questions while displaying a beautiful friendship between a grandpa and his granddaughter. The book ends leaving space for grief to be discussed, a theme often avoided in children's books but very much needed. A disjointed and unusual story but one that, as a teacher, will be useful to facilitate 'book talk' in class.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library when I was looking for a different book by the author and it wasn't available. I didn't know what it was about and when I started reading it out loud to Alistair I was confused as an adult so I'm sure he was too.
The book is disjointed. Each page is its own vignette so there's no rhythm or continuous idea-just snapshots of a girl with her grandpa. At the end, it is implied grandpa has died but it's left unsaid. This could allow parents a place to start a conversation about the death of a loved one which is the only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1.

[Sarah Coles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sweet story is written to importantly document all of the little, but significant encounters between a little girl and her grandpa, which is incredibly relevant to all children. However, I found the format of the book a little confusing as it did not flow from page to page as an 'ordinary' story does. That being said, the individual interactions on each page do mirror the way in which young children especially make sense of their encounters.

[Lorna Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book needs to be explored in every sense - the colours, placement and disjointed sentences all infer something. When I first read this book, I was going to give it a low rating because it felt odd to read and did not make sense. After discussing it with Werdha and Mat, I realised that it is not meant to flow, because it illustrates snapshots of memories over a lifetime, rather than a day.

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely read about the special relationship between a Granddaughter and her Grandpa. I loved that each page is a new statement or question which mirrors often how young children communicate. Although the last two pages elude to Grandpa's death, It would be really interesting to get children's perspective on the ending of the story and where Granpa finally went.

[Ainhoa Desvaux Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows the relationship a granpa and a grandaughter have when an attachment has been developed between them. It illustrates different activities they both do together. Very good book to show children the importance of spending time with their grandparents and, to talk about emotional loss.

[Frances Coe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of mini stories on each spread. All the questions children ask, all the imaginative play, the special ice creams and trips to the beach. I liked how the pictures often depicted a memory or a vision from what the grandpa or the grand daughter were saying. The ending was rather blunt and sad. So an (at times) honest refluof life

[Charlotte Coles]

Amazing and emotional book that had a meaning that hits every family with struggles of losing a loved one. So beautifully written and is great to read for all ages as it will pull on heart strings. Shows a strong bond between grandchild and grandad and how they feel towards one another is so beautifully written. If you haven't read, you should definitely do so. MUST READ.

[Charlotte Yardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply Beautiful. Depicting a relationship between a young girl and her grandpa showing the innocent of youth vs the wise life experiences you build. Progresses on to representing how we should spend time with the ones we love as they won't always be around - However sometimes our innocence means we don't recognise that we are slowly loosing them.

[Jemmy Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the animated short when I was a child, never got around to reading the book until now.

For anyone who has ever loved and lost a grandparent. This is a beautiful little book, and a good one to share with younger children to gently explain love and loss to them, but not in a heavy-handed way. It’s very simple, and very sweet. Even thinking about it makes me tear-up. The artwork is lovely too.

Very much recommended, but bring a box of tissues!

[Caroline Dougan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book showing the unique connection between a grandparent and their grandchild. Granpa always goes along with the unseen games and often confusing adventures of his granddaughter. The illustrations show the fun connections between granpa's world and the little girl's world

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title I read was an 1984 copyright.

A little girl and her Granpa have lots of special time, going to the beach planting plants, they sing, have a tea party, play with dolls and more. Till one day Granpa’s chair is empty.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange disjointed story. Did the Granpa die at the end? Alissa liked the backyard tea party.