My Two Grannies

written by Floella Benjamin 

and illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain
©2007. London, England. Frances Lincoln Children's Books. Realistic Fiction.
Lexile Measure: Cannot be found
Picture Book. Diverse Protagonist.

When Alvina's grandmothers take care of her while her parents are out of town, Alvina runs into a problem. One of Alvina's grandmas is from Trinidad, while the other is from England, and even though the both love Alvina they just cannot seem to agree. Alvina comes up with a plan to get her two grannies get along.

I love this book because it represents biracial families, which is not something that I have seen often in literature. I would give this book 31/32. I think that this book is extremely relevant today, and addresses topics such as conflict, diversity, and multiculturalism.

This book shows that two people who are very different can come together for a good cause, in this case to be with their granddaughter, and celebrate each other's cultures and backgrounds and even to learn from one another. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book is that Alvina realizes the problem and comes up with a solution to help her grannies get along. (You go girl!) I would recommend this book K-3, although it is appropriate for people of all ages. 

Here are some literary elements you may want to explore with your students or child:

Speech bubbles: In the book, the illustrator uses speech bubbles sometimes to show what the grannies in the book were saying to one another. Something to have students consider is why the writers chose to have speech bubbles instead of including dialogue in the text? What other books do this and is it effective?

Allusion:At one point in the story, the granny who is from Trinidad tells Alvina a story about Anansi the spider, though there are not a lot of details given about Anansi or the cultural relevance in West Africa and the Caribbean. Have students identify books which allude to something else, such as a person, a historical event, a character from a different book, a painting, ect.

Words to match meaning: The book ends by saying that Alvina's grannies gave her a great big hug, except great big hug is written in great big letters. Students can explore words to match meaning in many children's books, and may even watch to practice this strategy in their own writing.

Social Justice Theme: Non-traditional families