Grandpa is great by Laine Mitchell

Ill. by Alison Edgson. Scholastic, 2016. ISBN 9781760276638
(Age: 3+) Recommended. Father's Day, Grandfathers, Family. With Father's Day just around the corner, it is good to see a book extolling the virtues of grandfathers as well. In this rhyming story each page depicts an animal with its grandfather, doing all sorts of activities. Gardening with a bucket and spade (meerkats), kicking around a football (ostrich), reading comics (penguins) or playing trains (bears) each older animal and his grandchildren play and frolic, are active and sometimes quiet and restful, play with toys or just watch the television together, but what ever they do, Grandpa is number one.
The soft illustrations add zest, movement and colour to the text, encouraging the readers to talk about the things they do with their grandfather and sharing their family's experiences with the class or friends. The easy rhyming lines encourage children to predict the rhyming word and say the lines themselves when they have had it read out loud a few times.
The humour in the illustrations will add another layer of interest to the sharing of the story be it read aloud or shared in a small group or just one to one.
Fran Knight