Grampa, Will You Tell Me A Story?: A 'Pickles' Children's Book

by Dianne Young, Brian Crane (Artist)

Overview

For over twenty-five years, Crane’s comic strip, Pickles, has been delighting readers around the world, and for the first time Brian Crane brings his beloved characters into a book intended specifically for children. Crane’s crotchety but endearing senior, Earl Pickles, can be humorous and often touching, and when his precocious grandson, Nelson, asks his gramps to tell him a story, Earl’s imagination takes over. The two embark on a journey filled with whales, hot dogs, and an intense but lovable ostrich in a raincoat. Written by acclaimed Canadian children’s author Dianne Young, this quirky tale is sure to entertain children, fans of the strip, and anybody who enjoys a rollicking adventure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936097159
Publisher:	Baobab Press
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Series:	Brian Crane's 'Pickles'
Pages:	33
Product dimensions:	11.10(w) x 11.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	1 - 8 Years

About the Author

• Brian Crane’s, Pickles, appears in over 800 newspapers worldwide. He has been nominated three times for the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year award by the National Cartoonists Society and won in 2013. Pickles has been nominated twice as Best Comic Strip, a prestigious award it won in 2001. Crane lives in Sparks, Nevada, with his wife and family, which consists of seven children and eight grandchildren.

• Dianne Young is a retired educational assistant in an elementary school, a mother, a writer, and a yodeller. She was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and she has been writing for children for over twenty years. Her first book, The Abaleda Voluntary Firehouse Band, was published in 1990. Her fifth book, Dear Flyary, won the 2014 Saskatchewan Book Award for Children's Literature

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“I think I might love it!”
“I like it when my gramps tells me stories like [this]!” - Liam (age 4)
“Ostrich! Whale! I like that. I want that.” - Padgett (age 2)
“I like that the kid is correct and the grandpa is all wrong! That grandpa is so silly!” - Nate (age 10)
“Oh . . . I get it!” - Alice (age 10)
"I think I might love it!" - Scarlet (age 6)

Editorial Reviews

• “I think I might love it!” - Scarlet (age 6)

• “I like it when my gramps tells me stories like [this]!” - Liam (age 4)

• “Ostrich! Whale! I like that. I want that.” - Padgett (age 2)

• “I like that the kid is correct and the grandpa is all wrong! That grandpa is so silly!” - Nate (age 10)

• “Oh . . . I get it!” - Alice (age 10)

From the Publisher

2018-08-20

Syndicated cartoonist Crane teams up with Young to create an adventurous shaggy dog story.

When grandson Nelson asks for a story, Grampa begins. "There once was this animal…you know, the hump one?" Nelson replies, "A camel?" Grampa answers, to Nelson's astonishment, "That's right, a humpback whale!" The story continues in this manner as the two characters imagine a thoroughly nonsensical yarn filled with Grampa's surprise responses to the questions he's posed. The arc of the story becomes increasingly absurd, to the vexation of the boy. "What? But Grampa…." The whale is not swimming in the ocean, as Nelson assumes, but a swimming pool; a black-and-white bird that can't fly is not a penguin but an ostrich; the guy that works at the pool is not the lifeguard but the hot dog vendor. Nelson begins to think Grampa is deaf, "What? Can you even hear me?" Crane's signature drawings feature white-haired, bespectacled grandparents and their blond grandson (all are white) in oversized pages to depict the ludicrous cumulative venture Grampa keeps fabricating, often placing Nelson and Grampa within the scenarios Grampa cooks up. Though the bright, young boy loves his Grampa, this kind of creative storytelling can be ridiculous. Kids will identify with Nelson as his exasperation brings him to the more sensible Gramma for another story. What will hers entail?

An intergenerational lark for readers with a high tolerance for foolishness. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews