Grandad's Island: Benji Davies

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Whether it's read as a picture book about love, loss or just missing someone who isn't around anymore, it's a charmer. Visiting Grandad's house at the bottom of the garden again, he finds it just the same as it's always been - except that Grandad isn't there anymore. This could be discussed as a class, small groups or 1:1 about how it can be really, really hard after you say goodbye but it hopefully gets a little easier day by day. Sure to provide comfort to young children struggling to understand loss, Benji Davies's tale is a sensitive and beautiful reminder that our loved ones live on in our memories long after they're gone. I think this shows that it could simply be taken as an interesting story for younger readers but also it has layers!

Benji Daviesin "Vaarin saari" (Karisto, 2016) on kaunis kuvakirja, jossa käsitellään vertauskuvallisesti isoisän kuolemaa, ilman minkäänlaista uskonnollista leimaa tai painolastia. This book deals with a very sensitive subject of losing grandparents and it is a situation I have seen many children experience and this book may help them to understand the situation.Missing his grandfather, Syd is comforted by the idea, as represented by the letter from the island that he receives, that his Grandad is in a good place. It is not included in promotions available to our main range products, as stated in our terms of service. I would love to explore this message with children and see what they think the letter at the end might say. Proficient readers bring a lot of assumptions to text, that young children need to be taught explicitly or else learn implicitly though wide reading and life experience.

Publishers Weekly 'This book is innovative and useful as a way to talk about the idea of loss-without ever referring to actual death.

Cudowna wyspa dziadka” to wartościowa książka dla najmłodszych czytelników, których zachwycą nie tylko przepiękne kolorowe ilustracje, ale również zaskakująca historia.

The sentiment in this book is beautiful as it so sensitively deals with the loss of a much loved Grandad. This beautiful, colourful and imaginative book is all about the relationship between Syd and his grandad, and creating a metaphor for his passing.Then I read the blurb and after that I re-read the book and saw some small hints that indeed hinted to that blurb. Sure to provide comfort to young children struggling to understand loss, Benji Davies’s tale is a sensitive and beautiful reminder that our loved ones live on in our memories long after they’re gone. The artwork, moreover, is every bit as colorful and appealing as you would expect from a Davies picture-book.