My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch

by Graeme Base

Book Overview

Here is a terrific tale with rollicking verse and marvelously detailed illustrations from Graeme Base, the Australian creator of the bestselling Anamalia and The Eleventh Hour. My Grandma Lived in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810915472
• ISBN13: 9780810915473
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 21 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.3" x 12.1"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Track this one down!

I've been a fan of Graeme Base books since I was a kid, so naturally I started expanding my original 2 book collection to share with my son. Although the illustrations aren't as gorgeous as some of his other books (more of a scratchy/pencil/diff medium style) and every 2-page split is not colorized, they still work perfectly with the story. Really fun read, especially if you've got an eccentric gran/nana in your family.

"...Near Bandywallop East..."

My Grandma lived in Gooligulch, Near Bandywallop East, A fair way north of Murrumbum (Five hundred miles at least)... In Sydney and in Melbourne Town, They all knew Grandma's name, And all about the animals, That Grandma used to tame. THe Australian place names and the premise of the Grandma taming exotic animals (exotic to most non-Australians kids) is as colorful as Grame Base's 11 2-page spreads. The story concerns Grandma (while we're told that everyone "knew her name," we're never told what it is), her taming, training, and befriending of wombats, kangaroos, dingos, goannas and local birds, including kookaburras, galahs, magpies, and coots. The color pictures are beautiful and often wonderfully improbable: A goanna (some kind of reptile) is shown in an easy cair, quaffing some type of drink (Foster's?), while he and a dingo (wild dog) watch a rat balance an Australian coin. After introducing the animals who overrun Grandma's house, Base's brief plot concerns Grandma's journey (via pelican) over the desert sands and mountins, "until at dusk they reached a place, Where giant tree-ferns grew. There's a lush picture of this riverbank oasis, followed by a dark, fun/scary night illustration of the wombats--their eyes open in fear--"looking nervously around...for a wombat-eating snake." Grandma and pelican journey to next to the sea, where she dons "frilly bathing gear," and rides the waves on a blowup sea-dragon. HOwever, things take an unexpected turn when Base decides that Grandma will be taken by the tide: "ANnd no-one's seen my Grandma/Even to this very day." This sudden disappearance is tempered by the narrator's speculation that Grandma probably landed on an island and thence to England , Spain, San Francisco, or Tingoor, or (her best bet), that Grandma's "back in Gooligulch, just like before." While the fantasy elements of the book make Grandma's fate less important, and the narrator's speculation more plausible, this turn of events may make the book somewhat unsettling for toddlers, restricting the book's audience to those around the ages 4-9 or so. You'll have to use your judgement. There's no hint that Grandma had a disaster, she pictured (in the narrator's fantasy taming animals "in thejungles of Tingoor" an d heading to San Francisco "On a Western Union train." Still, you might want to consider whrther the ambiguity of what happened to Grandma will be upsetting to your readers. Still, in keeping with the light, silly narrative poem (which is very imaginative and well-written), I think a zanier, more explicit conclusion would have been a better fit. The other non-color picture are a monochromatic dark brown, made interesting by Base's lined shadings. Unfortunately, these are sometimes too dense, his most effective picture leave more "white space." In addition, Base introduces some of the animals without a nearby reference illustration: You have to go to the inside of the front cover to get the key to the two-page illustr

Wonderful Fun Book! Clever wording.

My kids really enjoy this book. It was a gift from Grandma for my oldest son because he likes to say funny words. This book is full of funny words and names that all three of our kids love. At the end of the book, my daughter always wants to know "what happend to Grandma", so we come up with all kinds of possibilities. This is a wonderful book and is read often as our bedtime routine.

Billiantly Beautiful

This is definitely the best picture i have ever read to my children and i would recomend it to all parents and children alike. It makes you smile and feel so content and happy as you reach the last page. The illustrations, superb, the story, edge of your seat stuff.Recommend t for everyone, young and old.

A beautifully illustrated multicultural animal book.

This beautifully illustrated book set in Australia's outback has the most interesting animals I've ever seen! The multicultural theme can be used in classrooms and at home to promote an understanding of native animals of Australia, relationships with elders, women of independence, and travel. The story is beautifully written in prose and the illustrations are patterned in pencil/charcoal and brilliant pictures.