KidLit Forum

Gangsta Granny by David Williams is a book published in 2011 and it has a the main theme the way old people are seen and understood. It focuses on the view on old age. The topic evolves around Ben and his granny, the way they discover each other's real natures.
First, Granny is presented within the stereotypes of old age: white hair, false teeth, old people habits like tucking tissues up her sleeve. Ben considers her "boring", every Friday night when his parents watch live shows and he gets to stay with Granny. That is until one Friday evening when Granny goes out and Ben decides to follow her. What he discovers is pretty amazing. 'I am an international jewel thief' explains Granny.She also reveals her plans about stealing Crown Jewels and Ben decides to help her. BEN gets involved into the planning of the whole robbery, he researches, finds the perfect way to get inside the Tower-an old pipe.When the time comes, they go to the Tower, enter through the pipe,but then the strangest thing happens. A voice tells them, asks them actually not to steal the Crown Jewels. It was the Queen. They leave without stealing them.It is the moment when Granny tells Ben she has been lying. She overheard Ben talking to his parents about the fact that she was boring, so she decided to give him and unforgettable moment together. She also has some sad news. She is dying, suffering from cancer. Indeed, she dies a little time before Christmas.
The theme of "ageism" is obvious in this book. We can make a comparison between the way Ben sees Granny at the beginning, just a regular old, boring woman and the way he perceives her after he finds out about her secret life. She is exciting, courageous, with incredible stories to tell. Their relationship is now stronger. It proves that a grandson and a granny who barely know each other bond through fun and adventure.It is a story about prejudice about age and acceptance of people just the way they are.

A good summary and I agree with what you have said.
The relationship Ben has with his parents is also strongly representative and says a lot about the society we live in nowadays. They want him to be a dancer. So, problematic is not only the relationship granny-grandson but also son-parents. You are write when you say that "The theme of ageism is obvious in this book" but depends from which perspective we choose to analyze the topic.