My Gran's Different

Sue Lawson (author)
Caroline Magerl (illustrator)

Lothian Books, Australia: 2003

ISBN: 0734409931

Genres: picture book, realistic fiction

Issues: aging, disabilities

This gentle, tender story is about aging and love, told from the perspective of the grandson.

He tells the reader about his friends' grandmothers - ‘Sophie's nanna bakes sponge cakes as high as my schoolbag...' and ‘Raffie's nonna drives a florist van,' not out of envy but with a certain melancholy regretfulness, as each description is followed by, ‘but my gran's different.'

The watercolour illustrations are dominated by brown and grey tones that echo this slight sense of sadness. Each statement of ‘but my gran's different' shows Charlie in various stages of getting dressed, picking flowers, then walking to visit his grandmother who, it turns out, has dementia.

‘She can't remember who she is.' The remarkably simple text is a very subtle way of introducing children to the concept of dementia in older people, especially with the positive attitude it encourages at the end - ‘But that's all right, because I remember who she is.'

In one powerful concluding sentence the book emphasizes the importance of family relationships and reinforces values such as respect and affection for elders. A starting point for many discussions, this is a valuable addition to the early childhood classroom.