Grandma Z

by Daniel Gray-Barnett

[pamela]

Grandma Z by Daniel Gray-Barnet is an adventurous romp through the imagination of a young boy. Incorporating elements of Mary Poppins, Hagrid from Harry Potter, with the absurdist stylings of Roald Dahl, Grandma Z is the Fairygodgrandma that every child would dream to have.

While the plot is simple, with jumps and leaps that occasionally seemed to come from nowhere, where Grandma Z shines is its illustration. The colour palette is limited which, to my surprise, made the illustrations far more striking than I had expected. The mix of blues and oranges gives the book an ethereal feel, communicating the fact that the story takes place in a young boy's imagination more effectively than words ever could. Even the layout itself was clever. Many illustrated children's stories simply represent what the text is telling us. Gray-Barnett instead uses his art to convey the plot, using the text to emphasise what the art can't communicate. It was an interesting approach, but it really worked.

Grandma Z isn't a perfect work. At moments the text didn't flow as smoothly as I would have liked and I didn't feel that I got a real feel for the two main characters. But neither of these was major enough to change the way I felt about the book. Grandma Z is a beautiful work of illustrated fiction that is not only something fun to share with your children, but is also so beautiful that it's something worth keeping forever.