Well hello readers! Mrs Brown is still here and I'm finding it hard to believe that it's been such a long time since my last post. There's one stand out book that travelled with us this summer from London to South Carolina to North Carolina and back. It's the latest title from long time favourite author/illustrator Benji Davies and it's called Grandad's Island.
As E and I start to have slightly differing tastes in books it was a joy to discover that we were both happy to read this one over and over again. I was hooked by the pictures. E was hooked by the boat. Neither one of us expected that Syd and Grandad's adventure would end with Grandad staying behind and Syd sailing home alone. And somehow, through the palpable sensitivity of the words and the lovingly portrayed characters neither one of us felt overwhelmingly sad.
Some retailers have marketed Grandad's Island as a book about a difficult subject [death] but that seems a bit limiting to me. There's a lot about life in this book; from relationships with loved ones, to coping with change, to independence and cherishing memories. And the inevitable goodbye happens so gently and the adventures Syd and Grandad have beforehand are so wonderful that, well, it all just seems like it's going to be ok... and I think it will be.
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