Grandad’s Secret Giant
Following the acclaimed The Bear and The Piano, Grandad’s Secret Giant is David Litchfield’s second offering as an author/illustrator. The story follows a friendly, patchwork-wearing giant who hides his identity to avoid frightening the people of the village because ‘people are scared of things that are different’. When the main character, Billy, finds out through his Grandad about all the philanthropic deeds the Giant has supposedly undertaken, Billy, nudged on by his dog, Murphy, decides to discover if the Giant is, indeed, real.
This book is beautifully produced with a titleless hardback cover enclosed in a jacket that offers an alternate picture and gold foil accents! The richly coloured illustrations inside are infused with a lovely sense of light that adds to the mood of each scene. Some of the double-page spreads, however, are very compositionally busy, though the double-page spreads are interspersed with pages of smaller vignetted illustrations which is a nice change of visual pace offering the viewer some restful white space. The overall pace of the story is much slower and the tempo is laboured in parts. Though the story is sweet and meaningful, be aware that it builds to an obvious moral lesson which is underscored in the end.
Younger readers (5 – 7) will enjoy this book as a gentle bedtime story.
