Grandad's Island: Benji Davies

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Up until this point, I have to admit that my reading of the book had been rather superficial, reminding me even now that revisiting a story, re-reading it and allowing ourselves time to slowly pore over the illustrations is vital and time well spend. Delving into a book, spending time with the characters and enjoying exploring a picture book is my favourite thing to do with a class, so I was more than happy to spend a morning doing so. To read the artist’s picture is to mobilise our memories and our experience of the visible world and to test his image through tentative projections…It is not the ‘innocent eye’, however, that can achieve this match but only the inquiring mind that knows how to probe the ambiguities of vision.

Despite spending a long time reading the book and planning a series of lessons around it, I hadn’t made an emotional connection to it until now. They often prompt us to ‘mobilise our memories’, and in doing so remember and treasure our loved ones, whilst making unexpected connections. Secondly, the children really enjoyed the story, which created a shared excitement and buzz within the classroom. They were impressed too with Grandad’s painting and expressed their own longing to visit the island and play in the tumbling, cascading waterfalls with Syd. Because of this, one child decided that Grandad was actually an evil pirate in disguise, leading Syd on an adventure to find treasure!The children had drawn colourful pictures to predict what might be on the island, written immersive descriptions of the jungle, developed their vocabulary (not many knew what an ‘attic’ was and enjoyed discussing what ‘an ocean of rooftops’ might look like). Many of them believed the island was in fact magic, as Grandad no longer needed his walking stick when he arrived. I felt very grown up and loved when I got to sit next to him at the dinner table and have my own ‘Footballer’s Dinner”. Syd and his Grandad are going on an adventure – through the door in Grandad's attic to a ship that will sail across an ocean of rooftops to a magical tropical island. I was sad to see my mum crying and in pain and life, for a while, certainly seemed bleaker and darker.

They made some interesting observations about Grandad, his life and interests, picking up many visual clues which I had missed. Now in her 25th year in the primary education profession, Jane’s incredible knowledge and expertise provides a solid framework for teachers, enabling her to support, enrich and sharpen the teaching of reading, writing and spelling. They soon set about writing their own letters in the role of Grandad and it was at this point that I had to leave the classroom. His first self-penned picture book The Storm Whale, since hailed a modern classic, won the inaugural Oscar’s Book Prize and was Dutch Picture Book Of The Year.

They are going to find new wonders at every turn as they explore the island and make lots of new friends in the form of the animals and birds. The children were utterly enthralled, desperate to find out about Grandad, Syd and the beautifully wild, thick jungle full of exotic birds and creatures they visit.

One boy was beside himself to discover that he had already seen the animals helping to build the shelter…in Grandad’s attic! They had nudged each other and giggled over all the things they spotted in Grandad’s dusty attic and gasped at the beauty of the island – I had displayed the book on the interactive whiteboard for maximum effect. I know they were both very proud of us, loved my family dearly and left a terrible hole in the fabric of our family life when they died.But having explored the book alongside my class, reading it aloud and seeing the children make their own connections with the characters and story, I had finally made a connection of my own to the themes of loss, grief and saying goodbye, which are subtly weaved throughout the story.