Gangsta Granny

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Cabbagy Water \"Are Mummy and Daddy not coming in?\" she asked, a little crestfallen. This was one of the things Ben couldn't stand about her: she was always talking to him like he was a baby. Broom-broom-brroooooooooommm. 1,'ogether Granny and Ben watched the little brown car race off, leaping over the speed bumps. Mum and Dad didn't like spending time with her any more than Ben did. It was just a convenient place to dump him on a Friday night. \"No, erm... Sorry, Granny... \" spluttered Ben. \"Oh, well, come in then,\" she muttered. \"Now, I've set up the Scrabble board and for your tea, I've got your favourite... cabbage soup!\" Ben's face dropped even further. Noooooooo 000000000! he thought.

David has proved himself as a dramatic actor in BBC2's 'Capturing Mary' with Dame Maggie Smith, in BBC1's Agatha Christie series 'Partners In Crime', as Frankie Howerd in the biopic ‘Rather You Than Me’ for BBC4, and on the stage in Harold Pinter’s 'No Man’s Land' starring alongside Sir Michael Gambon. He received the Comedy Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his performance as Bottom in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ directed by Michael Grandage. As well as being a No.1 best-selling Children’s author, David Walliams is one of Britain's most popular writers and comic actors. Ben’s parents listen to the same Strictly Stars Dancing CD over and over again. Could you create your own playlist of music that Ben might enjoy, or compose a song that the whole family might like? As well as his Children’s fiction, David has also published four number one bestselling picture books, his latest, The Bear Who went Boo! was published in November 2015 and has had total sales of over 85,000 to date. The Queen’s Orang-utan, David’s third picture book was written exclusively for Comic Relief with David giving all of his proceeds from the book to the charity.Find out what might happen to your teeth if you only pretended to brush them as Ben does in the story. Plumbing Weekly Ben's mum and dad had discovered their love of ballroom dancing too late to become champions themselves. And, to be honest, they seemed to prefer sitting on their burns watching it on TV to actually taking part. As such, Ben tried to keep his passion private. To avoid hurting his mum and dad's feelings, he stashed his copies of Plumbing Weekly under his bed. And he had made an arrangement with Raj, so that every week the newsagent would keep the plumbing magazine aside for him. Now, though, he couldn't find it anywhere. Ben had searched for the magazine behind Kerrang and Heat and even looked underneath The Lady (not an actual lady, I mean the magazine called The Lady), all to no avail. Raj's store was madly messy, but people came from miles away to shop there as he always brought a smile to their faces. 31

Choose a person that you know (or a made-up character) and think of different secrets that they might have. Can you write a story about this? All her life, she has been plotting to steal the crown jewels, and now she needs Ben’s help… Teaching Ideas and Resources: English Draw a map of the Tower of London and use it to show how Ben and his granny might have broken in to the Jewel House. Look at the labelled diagram of granny. Could you create a similar diagram for another character in the book, or from another story?Make a list of questions to ask the Queen if you had the chance. Could you role-play an interview with the Queen? Look at granny’s recipe for cabbage cake. Can you create a recipe for something that tastes much nicer?

I read this as a bedtime story over a few nights with my children, aged 5 and 8. Ben thinks his granny is a boring old lady, who only likes playing scrabble and eating cabbage but he's about to find out that he has under appreciated Granny. Could she possibly be a gangster? Or even a gangsta?! He goes home and now can't wait to see his grandma again to find out about these jewels. But when his dad rings Granny up, she says she's too busy that evening to have Ben sleep over.

Credits

Maybe I would have fared better, if I liked his TV writing (Little Britain), but I am not a fan of that show at all, finding it either mean spirited, exploiting the worst stereotypes or just plain stupid. Sorry. The illustrations in ‘Gangsta Granny’ by Tony Ross are lovely, however they don’t quite compare with those from the wonderful pen of Quentin Blake in ‘Mr Stink’.