Grandmas and Grandpas Both Give Their Best to Their Grandkids

So many children are fortunate enough to have grandparents who can dote on them and teach them about the world. In What Grandmas Do Best / What Grandpas Do Best, Laura Numeroff and illustrator Lynn Munsinger explore the power of this bond. Both Numeroff and Munsinger have numerous books to their credit, most involving animals. This one is especially simplistic, especially on Numeroff’s end, but I like the clever concept behind the book. It’s not the sort of book that seems likely to demand frequent repeat readings, but it would make a nice addition to a child’s shelf.

There are only 12 sentences in this book - and six of them are exactly the same as the other six, with the exception of one word. Half of the book shows all the things that Grandmas can do; the other half, which is read by turning the book upside down and opening the book from the opposite cover, has to do with grandpas’ activities. And what do you know? They’re the same things. This encourages a sense of gender equality and allows for some fun as we see how the grandpas and grandmas approach the same things differently.

At the same time, it makes for a rather uninvolved book, especially since ten of the twelve sentences begin “Grandmas / Grandpas can...” And the last sentence in each half of the book merely delays that opening with an introductory clause. The first five sentences in each half contain three activities per sentence, with each activity on a separate page. This makes the format very predictable and a bit stilted, since there is no variety in the sentence structure.

However, while Numeroff might be accused of sacrificing creativity for structure here, Munsinger’s illustrations are engaging as always. For each of the ten initial sentences, Munsinger provides three illustrations of the same child-grandparent pair. Hence, we feel like we’re getting a bit of a peek into the lives of ten different families. Most pictures show only the child and the grandparent, always working and playing together in close quarters.

The final page of each half, meanwhile, shows all five pairs scattered around a white page. Perhaps the most engaging of the illustrations are actually the two-page spreads immediately inside the book, which bring all the characters into close proximity with each other in a couple of outdoorsy scenes. There’s even some interaction among them, as the dogs and pigs on the Grandpa side share an umbrella and the raccoons and mice on the Grandma side work together to build a sandcastle.

The unique layout of the book, coupled with the adorable illustrations, makes it a cute choice for very young children to read with their own grandparents. It might even spark an idea or two about what they can do on their next outing, and perhaps reading it will inspire a brand-new grandparent-grandchild portrait. While this is not the most complex project either Numeroff or Munsinger has taken on, What Grandmas Do Best / What Grandpas Do Best is a very cute tribute to the love that grandparents and grandchildren share.