Grandad's Island

Product Information

Until then, like Syd, I shall continue to try and steer my ship safely home, weathering the storms, and filling my own attic of memories with laughter, music, art, books, love and maybe even a giant tortoise teapot. I know they were both very proud of us, loved my family dearly and left a terrible hole in the fabric of our family life when they died. My own children were teenagers by this point and so it was a self-indulgent nostalgia re-run of my children’s upbringing on the Isle of Coll. What the book allowed me to do is open up my own attic of memories, prompting me to remember both my Grandads. Syd and his Grandad are going on an adventure – through the door in Grandad's attic to a ship that will sail across an ocean of rooftops to a magical tropical island.

Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies (Simon and Schuster) - CLPE Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies (Simon and Schuster) - CLPE

If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. To read the artist’s picture is to mobilise our memories and our experience of the visible world and to test his image through tentative projections…It is not the ‘innocent eye’, however, that can achieve this match but only the inquiring mind that knows how to probe the ambiguities of vision. There is some plant cover over the walkway but there’s no roof over the walkway so you will be exposed to the elements on a sunny day.It will be difficult to get everyone together and some of my grandchildren are teenagers but my youngest granddaughter is eight and it will be nice to watch it with her. They are going to find new wonders at every turn as they explore the island and make lots of new friends in the form of the animals and birds.

Sunday 26 January 2020 - BBC CBeebies - Schedules, Sunday 26 January 2020 - BBC

The children were utterly enthralled, desperate to find out about Grandad, Syd and the beautifully wild, thick jungle full of exotic birds and creatures they visit. But as it turned out, the production company Move on Up have been so inclusive and invited me up to see the sets on the Isle of Lewis. I managed to compose myself and, on reaching the end of the story, when Syd receives a mysterious envelope, asked the children what they thought might be in the envelope.And watching the actors playing the characters was very moving as up until then, they had just been two-dimensional characters on a page.

Island: A Hidden Orangutan Sanctuary In West Malaysia Orangutan Island: A Hidden Orangutan Sanctuary In West Malaysia

A few months ago, I was completing a series of lessons with my Year 2 class on Benji Davies’ wonderfully moving picture book Grandad’s Island. Secondly, the children really enjoyed the story, which created a shared excitement and buzz within the classroom. I’m very happy with all the casting, especially Cherry, she is totally natural; she’s even got Katie Morag’s fleeting facial expressions which you can’t dictate to a child actor.They often prompt us to ‘mobilise our memories’, and in doing so remember and treasure our loved ones, whilst making unexpected connections. In 1997 in Hamish Macbeth, starring Robert Carlyle, he gave a memorable performance as Hamish’s confidant “TV John” McIver’s sinister one-eyed, one-legged, one-armed ex-jailbird brother Kenny, who conspires to steal the Stone of Destiny. The first day I walked onto the set, it was such a shock, it was like walking into one of my illustrations.