Grumpy Gertie

by Sam Lloyd

Can Gertie’s new friend help her turn her grumpiness into joy?
Gertie wakes up in a grump and sets out to tell everyone about it. After making the cheerful sun, flowers and fish thoroughly miserable, she feels no better. But when a cheeky monkey teaches her that by turning upside-down her frown turns to a smile, she makes a new friend.

Approx 100 words

Age range: 2-6 years

24 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sam Lloyd studied at Brighton University where she gained a BA Hons in Illustration. Now Sam is the author and illustrator of many successful picture books for children. Her picture books include Happy Day, Sad Dog which won the Sainsbury’s Baby Book Award in 2003, Mr Pusskins which won the Booktrust Pre-School Award in 2006 and the V & A Illustration Award. Most recently Calm Down Boris published by Templar in 2006 has been chosen by Richard and Judy for their Christmas Picks.

As well as writing and illustrating books, Sam also enjoys yoga, swimming, camping and doing outdoorsy things. She has been all over the world, including travels to India and Australia. Sam also does a lot of voluntary work with children, painting murals.

Reviews

[Komal Parveen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gertie woke up in a grump! Gertie spends the day being grumpy and makes everyone around her grumpy too. Realising that everyone is now grumpy she becomes upset. Seeing this, the monkey helps Gertie turn her frown into a smile. Finally, Gertie shares her new more positive feeling with everyone and now everyone is happy! The book is well illustrated and the smile and frowns are represented with a gap in the book because of this to turn the frowns into smiles you must physically turn the book. The book accompanies this turning with the rhyme ‘turn it around, upside down, crack a smile, stop that frown’. This makes the book a lot more interactive and fun for the children. This is a great book which can be used as a discussion starter on feelings and how our feelings can affect those around us. The story is simple and easy to follow. I would recommend this book for use in KS1 as Gertie’s situation is something which most children can relate to and I can picture some of the younger children having fun reading this book.

[picturethisbook.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gertie wakes up with a terrible case of the grumps and proceeds to be mean and grouchy to everyone she encounters. When the cheerful flowers, fishes and sun become as unhappy as her, she feels worse than ever.

This sturdy board book uses a clever die-cut of a frown that cuts through the entire book and becomes a central feature of the illustrations; so when a monkey hanging upside-down swings by to show Gertie how to turn her mood around by swinging with him, the reader is told to turn the book upside down to continue the story. As you can probably guess, from this point on, the frowns on all the faces turn into smiles.

A cute book that teaches children to be more mindful about their own emotions and how they affect others.

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[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good teaching book and a fun book for the kids to just explore the mouth of this book. Very recommended.