Fiction
Book
Availability
Details
PUBLISHED
©1988
DESCRIPTION
30 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
NOTES
Art techniques used: Energizing pencil drawings in illuminating colors
Grandpa demonstrates for his visiting grandchildren some of the songs, dances, and jokes he performed when he was a vaudeville entertainer. In this affectionate story, three children follow their grandfather up to the attic, where he pulls out his old bowler hat, gold-tipped cane, and his tap shoes. Grandpa once danced on the vaudeville stage, and as he glides across the floor, the children can see what it was like to be a song and dance man. Gammell captures all the story's inherent joie de vivre with color pencil renderings that leap off the pages. Bespectacled, enthusiastic Grandpa clearly exudes the message that you're only as old as you feel, but the children respond--as will readers--to the nostalgia of the moment. Utterly original
780
580L
Decoding demand: 56 (medium) Semantic demand: 68 (high) Syntactic demand: 95 (very high) Structure demand: 86 (very high)
Caldecott Medal, 1989