SuitabookGranny
Anthony Horowitz
- Reading
- If the reader is sensitive to creepy material, read the opening together and pause after the first major threat.
- Themes
- Family care and neglect: The book addresses family care and neglect; the detail of how it is developed remains unclear. The story appears to contrast material wealth with emotional care, using family relationships as the setting for its adventure.
- Age and villainy: Granny is portrayed as elderly, physically repulsive, mean and evil, with a plan involving becoming young again. The presentation is clearly comic and fantastical, but its repeated association of old age and repulsiveness warrants discussion about caricature and stereotype.
- Humour beside menace: The book is described as wickedly funny, creepy, dark and humorous while also involving a threatening, fantastical plan and repeated twists. Comedy appears to make the danger outrageous rather than realistic, but the same scenes may still feel unsettling because the threat centres on a child.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the reader enjoys creepy humour and cartoonishly cruel villains. The book repeatedly frames an elderly character as physically repulsive and evil, which may invite discussion about caricature, age and the difference between fantasy and real life.