Books with the Boy: A Joint Review of Butterflies for Grandpa Joe by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mike Byrne.

This week, S and I are reviewing the brilliant Butterflies for Grandpa Joe by Nicola Davies, which was kindly sent to us by the lovelies at Barrington Stoke.

About the Book 

Grandpa Joe has always loved butterflies. There used to be nothing he enjoyed more than heading off to search for the flutter of brightly coloured wings and snap some photos for his collection.
But since Ben’s granny passed away, Grandpa Joe has changed. He doesn’t want to go outside, and nothing Ben says or does makes him smile. It feels like Grandpa Joe is slipping away too. So there’s only one thing left to try – if Grandpa Joe won’t come searching for butterflies, Ben will bring the butterflies to him …

S’s Review

This is about a boy named Ben who had a Granny Lou and Grandpa Joe who loved the garden and butterflies and then Granny Lou dies and Grandpa Joe is not his usual self and every time Ben saw him he was always sitting on the sofa and not in the garden so Ben gets some butterflies to cheer up Grandpa Joe. I liked Ben’s two twin sisters and that his name was Ben because I have got a friend at school who is called Ben and also the Ben in the book is very kind and looks after his grandpa and showing some of out schools respect values of resilience because he always kept on trying and trying to make his Grandpa Joe okay. I learned a lot of things about  the life cycle of a butterfly that we were learning about at school last year, and this would be a good book  to read for someone else learning about butterflies or if you needed to know how to cheer up somebody who was sad. I would give this book 162 stars out of 5.

My Review

Butterflies for Grandpa Joe is a brilliant book for younger readers. It teaches readers about grief, empathy and resilience whilst also being a genuinely lovely story to share. S struggled a bit in the early parts when it talks about the death of Granny Lou because it reminded him of my Grandad dying a few years ago, and he was close to my Grandad. It was lovely to see a caring relationship between Ben and his Grandpa and this gave S and I a lot to talk about. S really enjoyed seeing the development of the butterflies, having been learning about the life cycles of butterflies at school. He’s been teaching us all about it and referring back to this book for examples since we finished reading. This was a big hit in our house, and it would make a lovely book to read with a child and discuss all the issues and feelings it raises.

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