Background

Written and illustrated by the incredible Benji Davies, this book is a top hit across all year groups.

Themes: Relationships, love, loss, adventure

Why it's a hit: This heart warming story gently explores what happens when someone special leaves them. Filled with bright, joyful pictures and a touch of wonder, it takes young readers on a sensitive journey about missing someone, without ever feeling sad.

Cross-curricular links: Geography (journeys, different settings, islands), PSHE (loss, death).

Perfect for: All age groups, but especially children aged 5-9.

Published by: Simon & Schuster Children’s UK

Personal experience 

I discovered Grandad's Island during my rookie year as a teacher. Our English lead, in a bold move, announced it as the core text for every year group, from the youngest to the oldest. As a fresh-faced educator, I'd never heard of it and, to be honest, my heart sank when I was handed a picture book. "How on earth will I get decent writing out of seven-year-olds with this?" I groaned inwardly. Boy, was I wrong. Looking back, I cringe at my naivety. Picture books consistently inspire the most incredible writing from my class, and Grandad's Island is a goldmine.

 

Summary 

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. 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. In fact, it's such an amazing place that Grandad decides to stay.

 

Before reading

I always like to begin my literacy lessons by accessing some good old prior knowledge and having a nice chat about the front cover. I'll often hide the name of the book because they LOVE guessing it (yes even Year 6 kids) and you can get some very interesting suggestions!  Some of my favourites so far are....

- The man, the boy and the flying things

- Flying without wings (yes it was a Westlife reference)

- Party time with Grandad 

We'll talk about what we can see etc and whether we've been in that environment before. We'll move onto some predictions about what the book may be about/what type of story it is. It's amazing how much discussion can be generated by a front cover and this one is a beauty.  One year, I found an old treasure chest on eBay and couldn't help myself. I brought it into class, stuffed it with key objects that appear in the book e.g. a map, a ship, a walking stick, a key and a cuddly cat and from then on, that became my first lesson to introduce the book. I choose a few very excited children to come and pull an item from the chest so we can try and work out what our new text is about. Hooks like this NEVER FAIL to create excitement. 

 

The big read

I'm a huge believer that a story shouldn't be constantly interrupted. And by that I mean stopping at every sentence to discuss a word or why a character is feeling a certain way or why something has happened. The beauty with picture books is that most can be read in one session and stopping and starting often spoils the flow of the story. I always make sure that the first read, the big read, is purely myself reading and them listening/admiring the pictures and having some OH LOOK! moments (more on that later). After that, when my teaching sessions begin, we can delve deeper and do all the stopping and starting we want. 

 

The pictures

The illustrations in this book are some of my absolute favourites. I just love the vibrancy of them and whenever I ask my students to describe the pictures, they'll choose words such as fun, colourful, delightful and quirky - what more could you want!

One of my favourite parts of the story is when we get to see Grandad's attic. The children always get very intrigued when they see the huge metal door - I like to pause here and pose the question 'So what's behind the door?' Some choose to get a pen and paper out and draw what's behind the door and some simply describe it with their words. Imaginations will run wild. Later on in the story, we see Grandad and Syd standing in the middle of the jungle and it's here where most of my OH LOOK! moments happen with the children.  More recently, I was reading this story to a lovely reception class and a little boy pointed out that all the things in Grandad's attic were now alive on the island! They all then started noticing things here and there and the discussion gets louder and the ideas get brighter and the classroom just buzzes. 

 

Once we've read the book, I like to explore the question 'Is the Island actually real?'  My two favourites are...

 

- I think the island is real but it's magic and only really special people can visit 

and

- I think the island might be a coping mechanism for Syd and that it's actually a den he's made at the end of his Grandad's garden

 

Themes

Grandad's Island touches upon the theme of loss so brilliantly and there's so many opportunities in this book to form PSHE lessons on. 

One particular line always gets me....

“Syd, there's something I've been meaning to tell you,” said Grandad. “You see... I'm thinking of staying. “Oh,” said Syd. “But won't you be lonely?”

In Year 6, we wrote letters of advice to Syd on how to deal with the loss of his Grandad. We also wrote some poetry on what loneliness is...Here's a snippet from one of my many talented writers....

 

Loneliness is the feeling that you can't quite describe

It's not full or flat or round or wide

It's not red or white or black or blue

It's one thing to me but another for you....

 

Writing sessions

I'll usually spend about 2 weeks (10 sessions) on each book and will often have an end writing goal with some shorter writing outcomes. In Year 6, we recently created a whole class information guide to 'life on the island' with each child/pair taking ownership of a page. One child wrote about the creatures that live on the island and another pair decided to write about the history of it and how it came to be. Another child, who finds writing a little trickier, created the map for the island and labelled the different sections. 

In shorter writing sessions, we used the picture below to create a setting description. I've used this picture so many times across my teaching career because it's such perfect stimulus. I even used this in a SATS booster session to revise word classes and tense types.