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Ben and Gran and the Whole, Wide, Wonderful World
Ben's favourite person in the whole, wide world is Gran, and Gran's favourite person is Ben. There is only one problem -- they live a whole, wide world apart. Now Gran is coming to visit. But with rocky rivers, scorching deserts and seasick cats to contend with, will she ever reach Ben's in time for tea?The split page design allows children to follow Gran's amazing journey at the same time as watching Ben busy making his preparations for her visit.
- GenresPicture Books
32 pages, Paperback
First published May 21, 2004
About the author
Gillian Shields
64 books539 followersGillian Shields was born and brought up in Yorkshire, in the north of England. As she grew up, she had two passions:books and theater. Gillian’s love of books led her to read English at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. After university she studied acting in London. She then taught in a drama school, the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, for several years, becoming Vice Principal. She recently taught English and Drama at Beechwood Sacred Heart, a girls’ boarding school.
Having children gave Gillian an excuse to carry on reading children’s books, as well as a motivation to write them. She has a son and a daughter, and is married to Brian, who works for the New York Times Media Group.
Hobbies, Interests, and Enthusiasms
I am currently learning Italian (or trying to!) and have a secret fantasy about going to live on the beautiful island of Sicily one day, and having a little stone house with a lemon tree in the garden, and a view of the blue, blue sea! I am lucky, though, because I do live in a fantastic part of England, full of soft green fields and rolling hills and cottages that date back four hundred years.
I like to go for long walks and see the changes that the seasons bring, and I try to imagine how it all must have been years and years ago, and how the people lived. I was brought up in the north of England which is much more rugged and wild—the backdrop to Immortal.
I also enjoy being in the city—although I wouldn't want to live there all the time, it's fun to go window shopping or to big new exhibitions or shows, or just hang out in a coffee shop with a cappuccino and a notebook and watch the busy world go by.
Something I enjoy is painting. I have taken quite a few art classes and find it very creative to work with paint and charcoal and images instead of words, though somehow I can't help adding bits of poetry and scraps of words into my paintings, too… When I was at school, I was completely obsessed by the Pre-Raphaelites, and I love the way their art is so intertwined with poetry and stories. My best friend is an artist and she is incredibly inspiring to me.
I hate cooking but love the idea of being a good cook and welcoming all my friends and family to delicious meals. So I have lots of beautiful cookery books but I never get past the first couple of recipes. Every so often I get madly enthusiastic all over again, but it doesn't last.
When I am writing, I can't listen to music—I find it too distracting, but I love to listen to the radio when I am driving. I listen to pop music in the morning and classical music in the afternoon. That just seems right somehow. My son is really into music, so I enjoy sharing his enthusiasms. At the moment we are listening to Eminem, Akon, NDubz, Chipmunk, Kanye West, plus Greenday, Michael Jackson…the list goes on. My current absolute favorite is Paolo Nutini.
Another interest I have is this amazing charity called The Smile Train which carries out operations for disadvantaged children born with harelip/cleft palate. Sometimes I feel I don't realize how lucky I am, and so it's good to try and do something to help a child on the other side of the world who isn't so lucky. My family also tries to support Sightsavers International, who do simple cataract operations to restore the sight of hundreds of people in the developing world.
On a more self-indulgent note, I love to get to the theater whenever I can, and to the ballet, which I adore. In another fantasy life I would definitely be a ballerina!
I can't imagine getting through a day without reading or writing. I know it sounds a complete cliche, but there it is. I go to a writers' workshop once a week to meet other writers and exchange ideas and read work in progress, and that is hugely important to me. And every spare minute of the time at home I am reading, reading, reading…What would we do without stories?
Education
St Catharine's College, Cambridge University (MA in Englis
Having children gave Gillian an excuse to carry on reading children’s books, as well as a motivation to write them. She has a son and a daughter, and is married to Brian, who works for the New York Times Media Group.
Hobbies, Interests, and Enthusiasms
I am currently learning Italian (or trying to!) and have a secret fantasy about going to live on the beautiful island of Sicily one day, and having a little stone house with a lemon tree in the garden, and a view of the blue, blue sea! I am lucky, though, because I do live in a fantastic part of England, full of soft green fields and rolling hills and cottages that date back four hundred years.
I like to go for long walks and see the changes that the seasons bring, and I try to imagine how it all must have been years and years ago, and how the people lived. I was brought up in the north of England which is much more rugged and wild—the backdrop to Immortal.
I also enjoy being in the city—although I wouldn't want to live there all the time, it's fun to go window shopping or to big new exhibitions or shows, or just hang out in a coffee shop with a cappuccino and a notebook and watch the busy world go by.
Something I enjoy is painting. I have taken quite a few art classes and find it very creative to work with paint and charcoal and images instead of words, though somehow I can't help adding bits of poetry and scraps of words into my paintings, too… When I was at school, I was completely obsessed by the Pre-Raphaelites, and I love the way their art is so intertwined with poetry and stories. My best friend is an artist and she is incredibly inspiring to me.
I hate cooking but love the idea of being a good cook and welcoming all my friends and family to delicious meals. So I have lots of beautiful cookery books but I never get past the first couple of recipes. Every so often I get madly enthusiastic all over again, but it doesn't last.
When I am writing, I can't listen to music—I find it too distracting, but I love to listen to the radio when I am driving. I listen to pop music in the morning and classical music in the afternoon. That just seems right somehow. My son is really into music, so I enjoy sharing his enthusiasms. At the moment we are listening to Eminem, Akon, NDubz, Chipmunk, Kanye West, plus Greenday, Michael Jackson…the list goes on. My current absolute favorite is Paolo Nutini.
Another interest I have is this amazing charity called The Smile Train which carries out operations for disadvantaged children born with harelip/cleft palate. Sometimes I feel I don't realize how lucky I am, and so it's good to try and do something to help a child on the other side of the world who isn't so lucky. My family also tries to support Sightsavers International, who do simple cataract operations to restore the sight of hundreds of people in the developing world.
On a more self-indulgent note, I love to get to the theater whenever I can, and to the ballet, which I adore. In another fantasy life I would definitely be a ballerina!
I can't imagine getting through a day without reading or writing. I know it sounds a complete cliche, but there it is. I go to a writers' workshop once a week to meet other writers and exchange ideas and read work in progress, and that is hugely important to me. And every spare minute of the time at home I am reading, reading, reading…What would we do without stories?
Education
St Catharine's College, Cambridge University (MA in Englis
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 29, 2014
This is a warm and happy short story about a boy named Ben and his Gran who live far away from each other. Despite the distance they are each others favourite person and keep in touch by writing to each other. One day Ben receives a letter from Gran saying she’s coming for a visit and will be there in one week. The story is then dedicated to telling the reader what both characters spend their time doing during the week before Gran finally arrives. The illustrations are bold, colourful and fun. The pictures portray the hard work Ben puts in to getting ready for Grans arrival and at the same time cleverly show the tremendous efforts Gran makes in her journey to see Ben.
The book is for children in KS1 and would compliment the introduction of the concept of letter writing, and even makes reference to emails. The days of the week are used to mark the passing of time throughout the book. This lends itself to demonstrating sequencing events over the course of a week. But both of these points are in addition to the overriding theme of the importance of family and the wider appreciation of the value of relationships and the fact that they come in all sorts of ages and places.
The book is for children in KS1 and would compliment the introduction of the concept of letter writing, and even makes reference to emails. The days of the week are used to mark the passing of time throughout the book. This lends itself to demonstrating sequencing events over the course of a week. But both of these points are in addition to the overriding theme of the importance of family and the wider appreciation of the value of relationships and the fact that they come in all sorts of ages and places.
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June 26, 2013Ben's favorite person in the whole, wide world is Gran, and Gran's favorite person is Ben but the problem is that they live a whole, wide world apart. They send each other letters and gifts. Eventually Gran decides to come for a visit. On her way she comes across rocky rivers, scorching deserts and seasick cats. Grans uses a variety of forms of transport to get to Ben and we wonder if Gran will get to Ben for tea.
I used this story for my shared reading session in which we discussed the different forms of transport Gran uses. For a follow up I did a writing lesson in which children had to pretend to be on a hot air balloon and write a letter to someone telling them all the things they saw, felt and heard on their journey. This book is perfect for the topic of transport/journeys as we see a variety of forms of transport in the book.
I really liked this book and would use again. It is perfect for EY to KS1 for teaching letter writing.
I used this story for my shared reading session in which we discussed the different forms of transport Gran uses. For a follow up I did a writing lesson in which children had to pretend to be on a hot air balloon and write a letter to someone telling them all the things they saw, felt and heard on their journey. This book is perfect for the topic of transport/journeys as we see a variety of forms of transport in the book.
I really liked this book and would use again. It is perfect for EY to KS1 for teaching letter writing.
November 17, 2015
About a close relationship to grandma. Ben sends letter to his gran who lives on the other side of the world. One day gran decided she's going to come over and visit Ben and it's the story about how gran got there. Has geography links as well as maths. Cute story.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews