How to Hide a Lion from Grandma
Helen Stephens
Alison Green Books
In this follow up to How to Hide a Lion, Iris has a tricky problem: where to secrete her leonine companion when her parents go away and her Grandma comes to stay. When she duly arrives, Grandma brings an enormous box, so heavy that it’s a real struggle to carry it up the stairs: those hats and bits and bobs must be very heavy ones think her parents as they heave it to gran’s room just before they leave. Seemingly though Iris’s worries are unfounded: her Grandma is so short-sighted she mistakes the lion for all manner of household items from a lamp to a sofa

and she doesn’t even notice when he accompanies them to the supermarket. So why is she buying such vast quantities of milk, bananas, peanut butter and honey (clue here)? Supposedly Grandma suffers from night time hunger pangs. Why too does she ignore Iris’s pleas to play dressing up with the contents of her trunk?
If you haven’t met Iris in How to Hide a Lion, then do make her acquaintance now; she’s a delightful character. So too is her Grandma – a really endearing, fun-loving person and just right for Iris.
With a slightly retro feel, and rendered in a somewhat subdued palette, Helen Stephens’ illustrations have an old-fashioned charm and are suffused with a gentle humour.
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There’s another funky Grandma in:

How to Babysit a Grandma
Jean Reagan and Lee Wildish
Hodder Children’s Books pbk
Young babysitters like the little girl narrator of this companion to How to Babysit a Grandad know just how to keep a Grandma happy when it’s a sleepover at her house. The recipe is pretty much the same as before, much of the information being offered in the form of lists with vital tips on such things as how to say a silent I love you and how to make shadow foxes kiss goodnight at bedtime.
With a mix of full-page illustrations and smaller vignettes, there is much to feast the eyes on: some spreads are choc full of busy details such as the shoe shop

and decorated gran scenes, (did I catch a glimpse of Grandad and his charge in the park pictures?) Others offer space for a more reflective lingering look like that of gazing at the first star of the evening.

Just the thing for Grandmas to share with their charges and vice versa, especially when called upon to babysit.
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A Scarf and a Half
Amanda Brandon and Cataline Echeverri
Maverick Arts Publishing pbk
Granny Mutton just loves to knit so when Little Lionel’s birthday draws near she starts making him a rainbow scarf. The only trouble is, she doesn’t know when to stop so it just gets longer and longer and longer … Having completed said scarf, she rolls it up, makes a parcel and gives it to her grandson. Excitedly, Little Lionel looks at its bulgy shape and convinced his present is a football, anticipates the fun he’ll have with his friends. Imagine his disappointment on discovering the contents of his parcel: off he goes looking decidedly bundled up and before long convinced that “… you can’t have a laugh with a scarf” abandons his useless gift. However his friends have more imagination and it’s not long before said article is being put to good use for all manner of fun activities for, as his friends all tell him, “That’s not a scarf, that’s a scarf and a half!” His Granny’s pretty cool too.
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