From the legendary Paul McCartney - an action-packed picture-book adventure celebrating the fun grandparents and grandchildren can have when their imaginations run wild.
See the compass needle spin - let the magic fun begin!
Grandude is a one-of-a-kind adventurer - a Mary Poppins for the modern day! With his magic compass he whisks his four grandkids off on whirlwind adventures, taking them all around the globe . . . Join them as they ride flying fish, dodge stampedes in the Wild West, and escape snowy avalanches!
Brought to life in a riot of colour by talented children's illustrator Kathryn Durst, it's the perfect story for little explorers.
Sir James Paul McCartney MBE, known as Paul McCartney, is an English singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, entrepreneur, painter, record producer, film producer, and animal-rights activist. He gained worldwide fame as one of the founders and members of The Beatles. McCartney and John Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history". After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman McCartney, and songwriter/singer Denny Laine. He has worked on film scores, classical music, and ambient/electronic music; released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist; and taken part in projects to help international charities.
McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million singles. His song "Yesterday" is listed as the most covered song in history and has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American television and radio. Wings' 1977 single "Mull of Kintyre" became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK, and remains the UK's top selling non-charity single. (Three charity singles have since surpassed it in sales; the first to do so—in 1984—was Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose participants included McCartney.)
His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, including all of the songs written by Buddy Holly, along with the publishing rights to such musicals as Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and Grease.
An iconic figure in contemporary culture, he is regarded internationally as an entertainer and humanitarian. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is an actor, a painter, a poet, and an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education; he is active in campaigns against landmines, seal hunting, and Third World debt.
No one - not anyone anywhere - needed this book. Paul didn't need the money. Paul didn't need the media attention. Certainly no readers will have their lives changed by this. Unfortunately, I will never have those 15 minutes of my life back.
The book starts off on the wrong foot with a dumb conceit - it's written not by McCartney, but by "Edward Marshall Sr." Perhaps Paul wanted some kind of plausible deniability to hide behind.
There are four grandchildren - a diversity-fest, natch. Like Paul, Grandude is pretty darn white. I'm not sure whether we are supposed to think that these kids are adopted or that they are each from a different child's marriage or what. It's just kind of contrived and is likely a burnt offering made to the gods of "we need diverse books" to avoid being shamed and cancelled via Twitter.
Grandude has a magic compass. Apparently Paul read Mary Poppins. We get dumb puns about a school of flying fish ("I hope we don't have to do any homework!") that they get to ride. When crabs arrive, the compass takes them to the desert and we get dumb puns about Appaloosa horses ("Appa-Lucy?"). When buffalo arrive, the compass takes them to the Alps. No dumb puns here. When an avalanche happens, the compass lets them ride a flying cow (really, another ride on a flying animal? a rerun already?). Then the compass takes them home and to bed.
Good grief. Is that it? Nothing at all about this is the least bit interesting or amusing or entertaining. Every bit of it has been done better elsewhere hundreds of times before.
There are "catchphrases" ("See the compass needle spin, let the magic fun begin!" 3 times and "Zing, bang, sizzle" 4 times) and there are repeated bit of dialogue ("Hey, Grandude!" said [grandkid]. "Can we go somewhere a little less [or more]..." then Grandude fills in the blank: pinchy, stampy, sleepy. Could this be any more phoned-in? It's like some lackey told Paul, "Wow, Sir Paul, you're a genius. Hey, you know how to use words! You should write a children's picture book!" and Paul, being too old to argue, went along with it. The problem is, he doesn't know the first thing about children's picture books and thinks that he's being clever or something. Instead it's so incredibly stale.
The illustrations have no charm and are just generic cartoon-like things. What a huge step down from something creative like Yellow Submarine. It uses the dreadful font play (different sizes, different alignments) that has infected other recent books.
If you can possibly escape this book, do so without any regrets.
A Grandude and his "chillers" (a grandfather and grandchildren) embark on a series of fantastic adventures thanks to the grandfather's magical compass in this debut picture-book from celebrated musician Paul McCartney. Escaping from a gray and drizzly day, the group of travelers find themselves on a sunny beach, then in the Old West, and finally on a peaceful mountain slope in the Swiss Alps. Eventually they return home, and the children (or chillers) are put to bed by their Grandude...
Although I didn't have quite as strong a negative reaction to this one as an online friend of mine who also read it, I did find Hey Grandude! rather lacking, and think it perfectly exemplifies the pitfalls of having celebrities, famous for their work in other, non-children's-literature related endeavors, writing picture-books. This reads like what an adult who doesn't know much about picture-books thinks a picture-book should be. The story idea isn't terrible (I can even see some kids finding it entertaining), but there's a little too much here, and McCartney doesn't quite hold it all together in one tale. Somehow, the narrative here just felt rather disjointed, like the author was trying to do too much. The artwork is colorful and cute, and again, I can see some children enjoying it, but it didn't do much for me either. Mileage varies, so if you're a determined Paul McCartney fan, you might want to give this one a look, but overall I was left feeling rather indifferent to it, and don't strongly recommend it.
“Hey Jude” is one of the most famous and beloved of all the songs that Paul McCartney wrote during his time with the Beatles; and therefore, perhaps it is inevitable that when McCartney turned to children’s literature, he did so with a pleasant little 2019 book that bears the title Hey Grandude!
Paul McCartney, for most people, would need no introduction; but in case someone reading this review has just been thawed out of a block of ice from the year 1961 or so, I will provide an introduction, as a courtesy. Born and raised in Liverpool, England, the son of a musician, James Paul McCartney gravitated to music early, and joined an older friend named John Lennon in a band called the Quarrymen. After a series of lineup changes, Lennon and McCartney, with bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr, achieved as the Beatles a degree of success and influence unequalled by any other rock music act before or since.
When the Beatles broke up, after just eight years together (and what an eight years it was!), McCartney formed, with his wife Linda Eastman McCartney and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine, a new band called Wings; and Wings went on to become one of the most commercially successful bands of the 1970’s, with album and singles sales that sometimes challenged those of the Beatles. As a solo artist, now 80 years young, McCartney continues to record and tour. I have seen him in concert twice – once at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, and once at Oriole Park/Camden Yards in Baltimore. Best live-music performances that I have ever seen. Period. Full stop.
All this success, of course, means that McCartney can do whatever he bloody well wants; and given the genial and positive spirit that always emerges in his music, it is perhaps not surprising that, in tandem with Canadian illustrator Kathryn Dunst, he turned to the writing of children’s literature.
Structurally, Hey Grandude! proceeds in a way that will be comfortingly familiar to anyone who has ever read a story to their grandchildren. Like Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat (1957), it begins with a group of children stuck inside on a rainy day, with nothing to do. And as with The Cat in the Hat, the children who are stuck in a rainy-day funk – “Lucy and Tom and Em and Bob” – have a way out of their boredom. They are all visiting their grandfather; and the title character of the story says “Cheer up, Chillers!”, pulls some postcards out of the back pocket of his trousers, and informs the children that these particular postcards have magical powers.
The Grandude of the story, whose proper name is William Marshall Sr., has long and slightly unkempt white hair, tied back in a ponytail, with a white beard to match. He wears a purple tweed jacket with elbow patches, a non-matching brown vest, a green bow tie, and dark shoes and slacks, with a traveler’s hat and a professorial-looking briefcase that is bound with leather straps and decorated with stickers. He looks, in short, like a thoroughly fun and just-about-ideal grandfatherly traveling companion.
It turns out that each postcard can take Grandude and the grandchildren to whatever destination the postcard shows – a sunny beach, an American West cowboy landscape, a Swiss mountaintop. “See the compass needle spin,/Let the magic fun begin!” And thus, Grandude, Lucy, Tom, Em, and Bob get to travel to these places and have a great deal of fun – before things take a turn for the worse and get just suspenseful (but not-too-scary) enough that Grandude must call out something like “Quick, Chillers, jump!”, after which he and his four grandchildren are safely on their way.
I must say that I was hoping for some Beatles allusions in the course of Grandude’s adventures with his grandchildren; the five of them could have had a delightful time traveling on a magical mystery tour to the octopus’s garden, or being saved from a traffic jam by Lovely Rita, Meter Maid. Even some Wings allusions would have been welcome; Tom could talk about what fun they’re all having being a band on the run, in their jet, only to have Lucy remind Tom that Grandude is speaking, and ask Tom to listen to what the man said. I am pleased to note that the follow-up book has the title of Grandude’s Green Submarine. Maybe they’ll see a walrus!
No, it’s not a Newbery Award winner, and it won’t change the trajectory of future works of children’s literature. All in all, though, Hey Grandude! should do perfectly well, for its young readers, the work that a children’s book is often supposed to do. Read it aloud to your own grandchildren, and it will no doubt help them to settle down, fall peacefully asleep, and have pleasant dreams. Now that I am blessed to have grandchildren of my own, I know how valuable a book that accomplishes such goals can be. Thanking you, Sir Paul, for approaching the genre of children’s literature with your characteristic optimism and good cheer.
My niece's birthday present to my dad for his first year as a zayde. It's cute, the pictures are nice (the artist is Canadian!), but it's not anything special. (I mean, other than that it was WRITTEN BY PAUL EFFING MCCARTNEY!)
Κάθε βόλτα στα μαγαζιά με την κόρη μου προϋποθέτει και μια βόλτα από ένα βιβλιοπωλείο για να δούμε τι νέο υπάρχει και τι θα προσθέσουμε στις βιβλιοθήκες μας. Συνήθως αποφεύγω να παίρνω βιβλία για εμένα και καταλήγουμε να αγοράζουμε τουλάχιστον ένα παιδικό βιβλίο. Αυτή τη φορά πήραμε δύο. Ένα εκ των οποίων ήταν «Η μαγική πυξίδα» του Πολ Μακάρτνεϊ από τις Εκδόσεις Μεταίχμιο. Δεν είχα ιδέα ότι ο Πολ Μακάρτνεϊ γράφει παιδικά βιβλία!
Πρόκειται για μια υπέροχη ιστορία, ενός παππού που έχει τέσσερα εγγόνια και μια μαγική πυξίδα! Τα παιδιά, δυο αγόρια και δυο κορίτσια, περνούν το Σαββατοκύριακο στο σπίτι του παππού. Είναι όμως ένα από εκείνα τα Σαββατοκύριακα που πρέπει να το περάσουν μέσα στο σπίτι αφού ο ουρανός είναι μουντός και βροχερός και τα παιδιά κακόκεφα. Όμως ο παππούς έχει τη λύση για να κάνει το Σαββατοκύριακο χαρούμενο και ευτυχισμένο, άσχετα με τον καιρό που κάνει. Μπορεί έξω από το παράθυρο να έχει βροχή και σκοτεινιά, όμως στις καρτ ποστάλ του παππού έχει υπέροχα, ηλιόλουστα τοπία, τα οποία μπορούν να επισκεφτούν χρησιμοποιώντας τη μαγική πυξίδα.
Τα παιδιά διαλέγουν μια καρτ ποστάλ που δείχνει ένα ηλιόλουστο παραλιακό μέρος και ο παππούς κουνάει τη μαγική πυξίδα πάνω από την καρτ ποστάλ. Την επόμενη στιγμή έχουν μεταφερθεί εκεί και μπορούν να απολαύσουν τη θάλασσα και τον ήλιο. Λίγο πριν ξεχυθούν στα γαλανά νερά, ένα κοπάδι ιπτάμενα δελφίνια χαιρετούν τον παππού που φαίνεται να τον γνωρίζουν καλά! Πριν καλά καλά το καταλάβουν, έχουν ανέβει στη ράχη των δελφινιών και περνούν υπέροχα ταξιδεύοντας στην εξωτική θάλασσα! Από εκεί θα βρεθούν σε μια άνυδρη κοιλάδα και θα γνωρίσουν ένα καουμπόι αλλά και πολλά βουβάλια, από τα οποία θα γλιτώσουν την τελευταία στιγμή. Μαζί θα ζήσουν πολλές περιπέτειες, ταξιδεύοντας με τις καρτ ποστάλ και τη μαγική πυξίδα του παππού, μέχρι κουρασμένοι όλοι πια να επιστρέψουν στο σπίτι του παππού και στα κρεβάτια τους για ύπνο.
Το θρυλικό σκαθάρι εμπνεύστηκε αρχικά το χαρακτήρα του παππού από τον ίδιο του τον εαυτό. Ο ίδιος έχει οχτώ εγγόνια και μια μέρα, ένα από αυτά τον φώναξε «Αρχηγέ!» και του άρεσε. Από τότε τα εγγόνια του τον φωνάζουν «Αρχηγό». Από το περιστατικό αυτό εμπνεύστηκε το χαρακτήρα του παππού που τα εγγόνια του τον φωνάζουν «Αρχηγό» και ο ίδιος τα φωνάζει «Μάγκες» και μαζί ζουν υπέροχες περιπέτειες. Τονίζει έτσι την υπέροχη σχέση ενός παππού με τα εγγόνια του, αυτή που τους δίνει λίγη περισσότερη ελε��θερία από ότι δίνουν ή επιτρέπουν συνήθως οι γονείς, αυτή που είναι γεμάτη παιχνίδια και περιπέτειες, φανταστικές και μη, αυτή που είναι γεμάτη με την αγάπη ενός παππού για τα εγγόνια του. Σκοπός του ��ταν αυτό να είναι ένα βιβλίο που θα διαβάζουν οι παππούδες στα εγγόνια τους πριν πάνε για ύπνο, όπως θα έκανε ο ίδιος με τα δικά του εγγόνια.
Όταν λοιπόν κάνουμε τη βόλτα μας στο βιβλιοπωλείο, φυσικά και ρίχνουμε πάντα μια ματιά στην εικονογράφηση πριν καταλήξουμε στα βιβλία που θα πάρουμε. Οπότε και το συγκεκριμένο το ξεφύλλισε η ειδικός επί της εικονογράφησης στο βιβλιοπωλείο και απεφάνθη θετικά. Και πως να μην το κάνει άλλωστε αφού η εικονογράφηση της Κάθριν Ντερστ είναι πραγματικά υπέροχη! Οι μικροί αναγνώστες μεταφέρονται τόσο στο σπίτι του παππού και βλέπουν την απογοήτευση των παιδιών στην αρχή, λόγω του καιρού, και τη βαρεμάρα τους, όπως βλέπουν αργότερα τη χαρά και τον ενθουσιασμό ζωγραφισμένα στο πρόσωπό τους όταν μεταφέρονται στα υπέροχα μέρη που ταξιδεύουν όλοι μαζί. Η Εικονογράφηση παίζει πολύ σημαντικό ρόλο σε ένα βιβλίο που απευθύνεται σε μικρά παιδιά, γιατί εφόσον δεν μπορούν ακόμα να διαβάσουν, οι εικόνες είναι αυτές που θα τους τραβήξουν αρχικά την προσοχή.
Λατρέψαμε αυτό το βιβλίο κι ας το διάβασα εγώ στην κόρη μου και όχι κάποιος από τους παππούδες της. Είμαι σίγουρη πως μόλις κάποιος από τους δύο έρθει στο σπίτι, θα του το δώσει να της το διαβάσει! Θα είναι μια πραγματικά ωραία εμπειρία!
A cute book about grandkids staying with their grandparents and going on adventures through postcards. The audiobook is read by Paul McCartney. Quick read.
Slikovnice, u pravilu, čitam na izvornom jeziku jer mi je tako draže. Ovoga puta nisam jer mi je došla u ruke ova prevedena. I svejedno mi je bilo super (osim ovih hrvatskih imena, ufff).
Uglavnom, uživala sam u sadržaju i u ilustracijama i to što je Hey Jude postao Hey Grandude i to što sam se prisjetila svog dragog nonota. Bravo, Paul! https://nedopricljivica.blogspot.com/...
As a huge Paul McCartney fan, I couldn’t wait for this book to come out. As a new grandma myself, I look forward to taking my grandkids on many memory creating adventures. Grandude captures the love of his grandchildren by trying desperately to change a boring gray, cloudy day for them. And he succeeds in a great way! Excited to see what Paul might write next!
Vratih se u djetinjstvo i vrijeme kada sam čitala slikovnice! Dječaci su već veliki - iako ih ne bi smjela više zvati dječacima :) - pa je davno prošlo vrijeme da im čitam priče, no imam jednu malenu četverogodišnjakinju koja je kod mojih vikendom, a pošto smo mi samo kat niže, često se dogodi da se njezin vikend kod bake i djede pretvori u vikend kod tete i tetka.
Te vikende iskorištavamo maksimalno. Pogotovo jer ona obožava da joj se čita a i u fazi je kada je zanimaju slova, pa se trudim da njezini posjeti budu ispunjeni i čitanjem. Nedavno je do mene, negdje u vrijeme Božića, stigla ova simpatična slikovnica iz Croatia Recordsa o neobičnom djedu i njegovim avanturama s voljenim unucima, pa smo vikend iskoristile upravo za čitanje nove slikovnice.
McCartney, djed čak osmero unučadi, napisao je slikovnicu o neobičnom djedici, izgledom pomalo nalik na ekscentričnog no simpatičnog Engleza, duže kose s prslukom i leptir mašnom, koji zabavlja svoje unuke sviranjem svoje gitare. No jedan posjet na turoban dan, pretvorit će njegove drage unuke u mrzovoljnu i bezvoljnu dječicu. I što će jedan djed tada učiniti? Pozvati svoje unučiće (Kulere kako ih od milja zove) na nezaboravnu avanturu do egzotičnog otočića, Divljeg zapada pa čak i do zvjezdanog putovanja iznad Alpa za koju mu treba samo poneka razglednica i jedan čaroban kompas.
Niz dogodovština prati ih na svakom koraku dok Super Djedica pokazuje ovoj neustrašivoj gomili što se sve može dogoditi uz malo mašte.
Već na sam pogled slikovnice, vidimo da nas čekaju prekrasne, oku ugodne boje i ilustracije koje jednostavno zovu da ih se detaljnije pregleda. Nama su se najviše svidjele pustolovine na egzotičnom otoku, pogotovo jer je malena sada u fazi neprestanog gledanja U potrazi za Nemom, crtićem koji obiluje morskim stvorenjima. Zanimljivo je s njom razgovarati o tome kada uspoređuje slike u slikovnici s crtićem pa se pokazujući prstićem sliku raka ili galeba nadoveže rečenicom iz crtića. A pošto je stariji crtić, vjerujte mi na riječ kada vam kažem da i ja znam izgovoriti mnoge fraze koje su nas nasmijale.
Ono što volim kod Eme, je njezina mašta i njezina sposobnost ubacivanja priča u priču pa niti jedna nikada nije ispričana, niti završena na isti način od originala. Slikovnicu ću joj pročitati jednom, no kod drugog čitanja, priča će nas odvesti u potpuno drugom smjeru, jer će ona, upravo zbog raznih ilustracija, izmisliti još neku svoju priču. Tako smo, čitajući o dogodovštinama o zvjezdanom putovanju na švicarskim kravama otišli na čokoladu, jer su je krave asocirale na Milka čokoladu, put na Divlji zapad donio je i posjet Buzza Svjetlosnog iz Priče o igračkama ( jer što je kauboj bez Buzza :) ) čak sam u nekom trenu očekivala i Elzu, no ona se nije nigdje pojavila, valjda je bila zaokupljena pravljenjem snijega na nekom drugom mjestu :) .
Sve u svemu, uživale smo u pustolovinama, jedino što smo našeg djeda stavili u problem, jer pri pozivu na šetnju, morao je izmišljati raznorazne predjele i mjesta koja će tada posjetiti :).
Although four grandchildren usually love hanging out on the weekend with their grandfather, the weather leaves them feeling frustrated and bored. But Grandude has a few tricks up his sleeve that might get rid of their doldrums. You see, he has postcards of exotic places and a magic compass that will take them to those places. They head to a beach, and enjoy frolicking in the waves until something happens to send them scurrying off to another postcard scene. This goes on for a while with the children--or Chillers, as he calls them--having several exciting adventures before returning home feeling exhausted. While they head to bed, Grandude takes a nap in his chair. I'm not a fan of most books written by celebrities, but this one entertained me and felt as though it were drawn from real experiences--minus the magic--as a cool grandfather kept his young charges busy with stories drawn from his imagination. The illustrations are filled with color and action, and it amused me to think of the elderly dude being able to keep up with those children. After all, they get tired faster than he does.
Good kids story although the constant expression "Hey Grandude" made me cringe. If it had been written by someone else, I wouldn't have picked up on the play of "Hey Jude" and it wouldn't have been as annoying.
Just about perfect. 4.5 stars. The best thing about this book is the strong writer's voice- I could hear Sir Paul's voice in my head reading this aloud.
fun and wholesome. I guess Sir Paul wrote this for his grandkids and probably shows what kind of grandfather he is-- mellow and loving yet cool and adventurous
Sad je izgleda postalo jako moderno da poznati i slavni pišu priče za djecu. Tako je evo i Paul McCartney napisao slikovnicu. (Doduše, illustrator je netko drugi.) Ne znam što bih mislila o tome, ali sama priča mi nije loša. Simpatična. topla, zabavna pustolovina. Ilustracije ju fino nadopunjuju. Mislim da će se svidjeti djeci.
Mitähän tästä sanoisi. No vaikka, että jos Sir Paul olisi tehnyt samantasoista musiikkia kuin tämä kirja, hän olisi luultavasti myynyt vähemmän levyjä kuin Sini Sabotage. Thai jotain.
Grandude is the older male equivalent of a Mary Poppins. He is watching his Chillers (grandchildren), they are antsy on a rainy day and hopeful for adventure, and through a magical postcard their grandfather delivers. As the grands are whisked around the world in a series of speedy encounters with the daring and the dangerous, they are in turns delighted and a bit fearful. When the adventures finally come to an end, everyone is ready for a return to a more sedate everyday life.
The pictures are cute and filled with action. There are more words that I expected for a picture book - great for me, but it does up the age group for which this book is intended (at least as far as whether they can read alone or need to be read to). Overall it's a sweet story, showing a bond that forms between a grandfather and his grandchildren, and hit its mark for fun and funny.