Hey Grandude! by Paul McCartney, Kathryn Durst (Illus.): 4 Grandkids and their Grandude Take a Magical Journey Away from Boredom and Rain

Hey Grandude! by Paul McCartney, Kathryn Durst (Illus.) Hardcover, 32 pg. Random House Books for Young Readers, 2019 Read: February 20, 2021 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Hey Grandude! About?

Grandude and his four grandchildren (he calls them “chillers”) are spending a “gray and drizzly” day inside and “everybody was grumpy and too bored to be bothered. Grandude pulls out a stack of postcards and when he waves his magic compass over one, he and the chillers are transported to that location.

Each time they arrive somewhere (say, the beach), shortly after the five travelers start to have fun, some sort of danger/annoyance interferes (say, a multitude of crabs taking tiny bites, forcing them to run to another location for safety). They travel around from location to location, only staying for a couple of pages before being forced to leave one fun locale for another—until after a full and fun day, they go back home to rest.

How about the Illustrations?

Durst’s illustrations are easily the best part of the book—the character designs are great. The animals stay cute, even when they’re disrupting the children’s adventures. I’d have read a longer version of the book just to take a look at more of the illustrations. She makes everything happening—the story, the way it’s told—more fun for young and old.

So, what did I think about Hey Grandude!?

So, ultimately I judge these kinds of books for how fun they are for the adult reader to the target audience (if for no other reason than after four kids, I can’t predict what kids’ll like). On that mark, this doesn’t do that well. It’s not bad, but there’s no fun for the grown-up.

I think that an adult with the right attitude and enthusiasm can make this a fun story for kids—and the illustrations will go a long way to help.

But the episodes are a bit too brief to get into and the language isn’t all that clever (which is one of those things that bring the adults back). It’s a pretty straight-forward story, which is good enough, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see an adult eager to read this again (unlike some others I could name along these lines).

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