by Catherine Leung

Three new books about looking out for each other!

My Grandma is a Superhero

This is a sweet and poignant story about a child coming to terms with a grandparent dealing with Alzheimers. It is told in first person from the point of view of a little girl about her grandmother whom she loves very much. She explains in a very simple and child-friendly way how she comes to realise the change in her grandmother, and then how she copes with this change.

Granddaughter and grandmother used to have a lot of fun playing together, imagining themselves on all sorts of adventures, and dressing up as superheroes, until Granny starts to forget things and become confused. The little girl goes in search of Granny’s memory, but eventually has to accept the fact that they can no longer play superheroes together. Nevertheless, her deep love for her Granny is unwavering, and the little girl concludes Granny will always be her superhero, and she will be Granny’s superhero helper – she will care for Granny, just as Granny used to care for her.

In the second half of the story, there is a fun interactive element, in the form of mazes and items to search for on the page. The reader is invited to join in with the little girl as she helps her Granny when she forgets things, like where she’s put her glasses.

The illustrations of Granny and her granddaughter are in a soft palette of colours and are very cute. They are sure to appeal to young readers – as will the playful feature of a black cat on every spread, who is also given pride of place on the title page! The end papers decorated with superhero masks and Granny’s glasses are a lovely touch.

Kind Crocodile

This is a fun and colourful board book with gorgeously expressive illustrations, bringing both the fearful and ferocious animal characters to life.

Young toddlers are sure to enjoy this story of a kind crocodile who helps a mouse, a wild boar, and a gazelle to escape from their predators, as they pile up on top of each other, on the crocodile’s back. Finally though, enough is enough when the kind crocodile sinks to the ground under the weight of  a rhino!

There are a couple of witty little twists at the end, which slightly older readers may appreciate. The tables are turned when the animals jump off the crocodile’s back and chase off a predatory lion. Just as they lose their fear and gain in confidence, the second twist comes when they then get chased by the kind crocodile, only to be told afterwards it was just a joke. This could lead to great discussions about when a joke isn’t funny, but overall, there is still a lot of kindness on the part of the crocodile who has helped the weaker animals in the community. I feel there is also a message about gratitude here – as the mouse, the wild boar, the gazelle and the rhino celebrate chasing the lion, the animals seem to forget for a moment the kind crocodile who helped them and got squashed!

On the final page all the animals are piled up again, this time in order of size, on top of the rhino’s back, and young readers will notice the crocodile is no longer squashed at the bottom of the pile – a nice final message about kindness on the part of the rhino!

Little ones will love the repetitive language, and the growling sounds which set just the right tone in Bill Nagelkerke’s translation.

The Invisible Story

This original story by Jaime Gamboa has an almost fairytale quality and is told from the point of view of a library book that feels different from other books. It goes unnoticed, as if ‘invisible’ on the library shelves, and it envies the other books, which compete to tell the most fascinating stories and show off their wonderful illustrations.

Only when a young blind or partially-sighted girl seeks out the ‘invisible’ book, by feeling her way along the bookshelves, does the reader realise why the book has stayed hidden away for so long. Its pages appear to be blank and it feels as if it has no story to tell. The girl though, will show the book its true value when she passes her fingertips over its pages of braille.

Jaime Gamboa’s lyrical and poetic text is beautifully captured in English by translator Daniel Hahn, and Wen Hsu Chen’s illustrations are a perfect fit. The simple white paper-cutting of the library, books, and little girl might represent the world as seen by someone with a sight impairment, and they contrast with a colourful collage overlay of the stories told by the books. The different textures of the cut paper look so tactile, and is fitting for a story about a language you read with your fingertips. I almost want to reach out and feel the pages! The embossed title and author and illustrator attributions on the cover are a lovely touch, and will give readers a chance to run their fingers over them as they would a book in braille.

The Invisible Story is a quiet campaigning story. It gently raises young readers’ awareness to a visually-impaired person’s perspective, and to the braille system, which can act as a visually-impaired person’s access to a colourful world of reading and imagination, as represented in Wen Hsu Chen’s watercolour paper cuttings. The little girl explains to the ‘invisible’ book that it is not read with the eyes and the narrator tells us that braille is the language you read with your fingertips. There is a wonderful illustration of the girl’s hands moving over the braille, and bringing the story to life.

In the end pages, there is also an explanation of how the braille system works, along with an interesting story about Louis Braille and how the braille system came to be invented. It is great to know Lantana Publishing has collaborated with the Royal National Institute for the Blind and that accessible formats will be available.