The Happy Hut
Tim Hopgood
Walker Books

The child narrator of this story and two siblings loved to visit Grandpa Martin’s bright yellow beach hut, doing so in every season. In spring they enjoyed rock climbing and dodging the showers. In summer they would picnic on the wooden deck and paddle in the sea, though on occasion Grandpa Martin would get soaked, prompting his “flipping fiddlesticks!’ reaction. Summer afternoons were passed in card playing and the evenings in listening to Grandpa Martin read. Autumn days were for kite flying, some meteorological learning

and Grandpa would take the opportunity to do essential repairs and give the hut a coat of paint, aided of course by his three ‘Happy Hut Helpers’. Wintery days were spent walking along the seashore, then back in the warmth of the hut, hot tea, fruit cake and woolly socks awaited.
One spring Grandpa Martin falls ill and the hut is left without any visitors and nobody to do the essential upkeep. That winter a fierce storm badly damaged the yellow hut.
When the family returns the following spring, a big restoration task awaits but rather than repaint the hut in its original yellow, the narrator uses a sky blue hue as a special reminder of their beloved Grandpa Martin: now the hut is a place of cherished memories ‘our happy hut!’

Wonderfully warm, Tim’s tale of love, loss and memories is presented with tenderness and sensitivity in both words and pictures. This is a book to share with Grandpas, as well as to enjoy both with family members and in the KS1 classroom.