KidLit Forum

"Gangsta Granny" by David Walliams is a book I enjoyed very much because it had witty, humour and everything it takes to capture somebody into reading it. It's about a boy called Ben who's getting bored by the fact that he has to sleep at his grandmother's house during the weekend because his parents were passionate about a dance contest they couldn't miss. At first he thinks his granny is really boring and she cooks bad and all she eats is cabbage which he hates a lot. Being fed up by that meal, he looks for some chocolate biscuits kept by granny in a box but all he finds instead, is a box full of diamonds and that was a big secret she kept . One night she couldn't receive the boy because it was her night out and that raised a big question for Ben. He followed her and discovered she was a real thief being disguised in a black suit. Seeing that, she tells him a story about how she robbed a ring from a lord's house and escaped like in a miracle. In the end Ben and his granny decide to steal the "Crown Jewels" as an ultimate thrill. He's very happy being able to live such an adventure with his granny and starts to care about her a lot. Their plan fails, being ruined by a neighbour, Mr. Parker, but the queen lets them escape. Granny gets very sick and eventually dies by cancer and leaves her "legacy" for charity. The child is very sad and visits her house quite often thinking his granny was the best gangster in the whole world.......
" Great book, great story, great adventures"....these were the words of my son about this beauty...the miracle made by great writers and by life!!!!!

I like little Ben. I mean it's almost impossible to be this little and so different from your parents and their lifestyle, but as in Matilda's case, little Ben educated himself not to be vain, even if his parents are described in not so flattering terms.
From the begining it is clear the Ben was feeling neglected, he is often told to be quiet so his parents could watch a tv show or play music in the car, and his opinions regarding his future plans haven't been taken seriously by his parents, they actually tried to convince Ben to do their way by emmotional blackmail:
Quote:
Me and your mother work night and day to give you the opportunities we never had, and this is how you treat us...
.
Regarding work I felt a certain irony in describing the jobs of the two parents, and their looks were also ridiculized.
This book is about discrimination, but also about the impossibility to comunicate, mainly between the elder and the young.
Quote:
Granny seemed to find it as hard to speak to Ben as he did to her

The lack of communication might seem very easy to solve, but sometimes seems like a big wall you have no idea how to climb.
In theory is simple, you hate your granny's cabbage soup? She can't know that unless you tell her, you hate scrabble? just tell her, she will think of something else to do. But things are way more complicated. In Ben's case his call in the middle of the night asking his parents to pick him up because granny is boring was a wake-up call for granny. Even if she was hurt, she remembered children need attention and imagination in order to be kept entertained, and she totally changed her ways realising she had taken her nephew for granted.
This book makes children interested to visit and listen their grandparents, and makes parents understand how important it is to encourage a good relation between their children and the grandparent.
I liked how clear was all about grandma's death, even if this was extremely sad for Ben, he managed to see death and disease as a part of life, and he accepted it.
Quote:
you'll always be my Gangsta Granny

I also realized how difficult must be to make up stories while trying to hide your pain or illness. We, adults sometimes forget to dream, and we, children, learn sometimes to late to appreciate all the efforts made for us. It is, indeed true that aging doesn't always come with wisdom or patience, but this is another story...

This is a very good book indeed. Beside the fact that it deals with the issue of "ageism", the book let us discover a lot of things about family life, about the way we tend to perceive the elder ones and about this "lack of communication" (as Ana has mentioned) which is so familiar nowadays. Ben is a boy who finds his granny so boring and doesn't want to spend time with her but how about his parents? They totally neglect her, and we can see that they have the same opinion about her as Ben has.

"But Granny is soooo boring,” said Ben. It was a cold Friday evening in November, and as usual he was slumped in the back of his mum and dad’s car. Once again he was on his way to stay the night at his dreaded granny’s house. “All old people are.”

They only use her to take care of their child and even if this fact is treated more or less ironically in the book, it's a point that sometimes shows the reality. Adults don't find time to spend with their old parents, and they only realize this when it's too late.

"Are Mummy and Daddy not coming in?” she asked, a little crestfallen. This was one of the things Ben couldn’t stand about her: she was always talking to him like he was a baby.
Broom-broom-brroooooooooommm.
Together Granny and Ben watched the little brown car race off, leaping over the speed bumps. Mum and Dad didn’t like spending time with her any more than Ben did. It was just a convenient place to dump him on a Friday night."

There is also another matter which even if is treated ironically in the book: parents who want their children to fulfill the ambitions they have never managed to fulfill. Ben's dream is to be a plumber because since his childhood he loved plumbing. Unfortunately, his dream doesn't correspond to their parents' dream as concerns him, to become a professional ballroom dancer. That is because "they wanted him to be rich and famous, and to their knowledge there had never been a rich and famous plumber."

While reading this book I inevitably thought of my grandma. I used to spend a lot of time with her when I was little girl and I enjoyed especially when she was telling stories before I went to sleep. As she grew older and older I spend less and less time with her. I'm sure she would like me to visit her more often...

I find it very sad that Ben's parents never went inside to say hello or to exchange a few words with Ben's grandmother. Another sad scene was the one from the hospital when grandma was told the bad news but she kept it a secret from Ben.

Apart from a few scenes the book is really funny. Imagining grandma and ben on the scooter on the highway escorted by police always makes me smile. No wonder it was such a success. It's a great children's book.

Very nice and sensitive contributions here. It really makes me feel bad for not having managed to squeeze in somehow a seminar discussion on this book in the last seminar.

This was one of the most successful discussions you had on this forum, each of you contributing with a new angle, a personal reminiscence or words about how this book could be used with your own children, or in class.

Bravo to all of you contributing here and in the other threads!

This book surprised me a lot, firstly when I found out that there are out there as cool grandmas as Ben’s, but in the end, after I believed all the stories, unfortunately, came to light that she was just an ordinary grandma. If may I use the word “ordinary”. This grandma’s lie made me smile, she did it just because it was such a big distance between her and her grandchild. They became closer than ever.

What should we learn from this? If we treat ageism as Ben has treated in the beginning of the book we could lose so great people from near us. Even old people could be fun, interesting, once upon a time they were so young like us, and they’ve been through all the excitement of life. We don’t have to forget, that some day we will end up like them. But hey ... oldie but goldie.