Grandad's Camper: A picture book for children that celebrates LGBTQIA+ families

Product Information

Delightfully colourful and carrying a warm, positive message of inclusion and love, Woodgate's uplifting picture book depicts a grandad recapturing the adventures of his youth courtesy of his granddaughter. This is an important text in terms of the representation of LGBTQIA+ relationships and portraying different family structures. Woodgate's explosively colorful scenes center most of the book on the men, with snapshot after snapshot of their loving life together.

That child is inspired to help Grandad dust off the old camper/bus in the garage, give it a new blue stripe, change a tire, and start out for new adventures. Discover a wonderful grandfather-granddaughter relationship, as a little girl hatches the perfect plan to get her Grandad adventuring again. So, their amazing granddaughter comes up with a clever plan to fix up the old camper and get Grandad excited to explore again. This debut picture book from award-winning author-illustrator Harry Woodgate won the British Book Awards Nibbie for Children's Illustrated Book of the Year and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Polari Prize, and named as an ALA Stonewall Honor Book.Grandad's camper van is hidden away in the garage - now Gramps isn't around any more, the adventures they shared travelling in it just wouldn't be the same. Roo loves staying with her grandfather in his cottage by the sea and enjoys listening to his wonderful stories. This is the story of a small girl who loves visiting her Grandad and rummaging through the artefacts from his travels. At the other end of the book the van rests under a heavy terracotta sunset, the journey ended, or at least paused. This beautiful picture book honors love and reminds us not only to remember those we have lost, but to celebrate them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Waterstones Children's Book Award Winner and British Book Awards Nibbies Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year 2023! It's so important that little ones grow up and see their type of family set-up reflected in the books you share with them. A long time ago, Grandad and Gramps spent many happy days travelling the world together in a camper van.The story is really lovely and delicately handles the issue of death and also helped me to discuss different family set ups with my daughter in a fun and age appropriate way. But what our protagonist/narrator most likes to do is to snuggle up with her Grandad and listen to stories if his adventures with Gramps. I love that Grandad wears a t-shirt reclaiming the pink triangle in the 1970s, and I love that children will see the story of gay grandads and know families come in all different shapes and sizes. This is a beautiful, sweet, touching and honest story of a tender conversation between a grandad and granddaughter. The artwork is enticing and rich, and readers will be happy to pore over the pages studying details like Grandad's friendly dog and the textured backgrounds as they read and reread the story.