Our Granny by Margaret Wild

Our Granny by Margaret Wild is a children's picturebook about some of the different types of grannies the world has to offer and what sets them apart. It is a fun read and makes grannies sound cool, which they are! "Some grannies wear big bras, baggy underwear", "Some grannies learn t'ai chi", "Some grannies have wobbly bottoms".

The story is told in a first person narration by one of the grandchildren of the main granny. The grandchild tells the reader some of the different types of grannies that they know of and and what type of granny theirs is. The book presents new text conventions and shares some similarities to a information report in the sense that the there is a topic heading which starts with "Some grannies..." followed by live in, have, wear, play. It also uses lists such as "thin legs, fat knees, bristly chins, interesting hair, crinkly eyes, friendly smiles, big soft laps" which are not as common in childrens picturebooks. Children would need to understand that all of the listed items relate back to the initial heading in this case "Some grannies have...".

The words are very important in this book and could tell the story by themselves without the use of images. However the images are important in linking some of the words that children might not understand. On one page the words say "Some grannies live in...apartments, big old houses, old people's homes, little rooms in the city, trailers, farmhouses, cottages by the ocean, nursing homes or nowhere at all. The images represent the words that children are less likely to understand with illustrations of apartments, trailers, farmhouses and cottages by the sea. The images do not contain much more information than what is depicted in the words.

This book does not follow the normal conventions of a story plot as it does not have any initial setting, conflicts, actions or resolutions. It does not even tell a story in the sense of the word, it only conveys messages about grannies and their attributes as well as the relationship between the grandchild and their granny.

This book would be suitable for preschool children in engaging them with their own lives ie. their grannies or family members and what interesting attributes they have.
Do they share similarities to the grannies in the book or are they different?