Benji’s books can been read in over forty languages and have sold many millions of copies around the world. A few months ago, I was completing a series of lessons with my Year 2 class on Benji Davies’ wonderfully moving picture book Grandad’s Island. Syd and his Grandad are going on an adventure – through the door in Grandad's attic to a ship that will sail across an ocean of rooftops to a magical tropical island. They are going to find new wonders at every turn as they explore the island and make lots of new friends in the form of the animals and birds. In fact, it's such an amazing place that Grandad decides to stay. I was completely stumped. Why was I crying? I felt embarrassed, flustered, hot and like I had lost control. I never got a chance to say goodbye to my Grandads. I like to think that both of them are somewhere on an island faraway, where the waterfalls cascade and a large chimpanzee serves them tea, or maybe even a ‘Footballer’s Dinner’. Perhaps I’ll see them again one day.

They were impressed too with Grandad’s painting and expressed their own longing to visit the island and play in the tumbling, cascading waterfalls with Syd. What did it mean? Was the big metal door in Grandad’s attic of memories and curiosities really a magic portal that turned inanimate objects into living, breathing creatures? Had Grandad taken the contents of his attic to the island? If so, why? Cue lots of excited chatter and debate!I was reading to the class and had reached the part of the story where Grandad tells Syd that he is thinking of staying on the island. Up until this point, I have to admit that my reading of the book had been rather superficial, reminding me even now that revisiting a story, re-reading it and allowing ourselves time to slowly pore over the illustrations is vital and time well spend. I suddenly found that I had a lump in my throat and I had begun to cry. My children looked at me and I wiped the tears away. How to assess and analyse ways in which pupils respond to stories, poems and plays’ by Michael Rosen

Reading Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies allowed my inquiring Year 2 class to explore a fascinating new world and prompted me to remember two very special men… My mum looked at me, with tears in her eyes, then nodded with determination and, thankfully, seamlessly carried on reading to the children, while I turned away and dried my eyes.Jane Considine, founder of The Training Space and author of bestselling books The Write Stuff and Hooked on Books, energises and inspires thousands of teachers every year, helping them to transform the teaching of reading, writing and spelling. Jane’s research informed and evidence based systems provide structures for success, enabling teachers to continually deliver outstanding results. What the book allowed me to do is open up my own attic of memories, prompting me to remember both my Grandads. They were very special to me and were the embodiment of safety, love and family. Grandad Eagleton taught me to laugh, collected conkers for us and told us not to worry about anything (“If worrying did me any good, I’d do it all the time!”). I have a clear memory of him helping with the washing up after Grandad Allen’s funeral and making jokes with an aunt. His easy ways, laughter and warmth were just what was needed on a difficult day. We used to enjoy playing hairdressers with Grandad Allen (who was pretty much bald!), whilst he watched the horse racing. He used to make my Nan laugh a lot. I remember him introducing me to his ‘Footballer’s Dinner’ – mash potatoes with a fried egg on top. I felt very grown up and loved when I got to sit next to him at the dinner table and have my own ‘Footballer’s Dinner”. I know they were both very proud of us, loved my family dearly and left a terrible hole in the fabric of our family life when they died. To read the artist’s picture is to mobilise our memories and our experience of the visible world and to test his image through tentative projections…It is not the ‘innocent eye’, however, that can achieve this match but only the inquiring mind that knows how to probe the ambiguities of vision.” (Gombrich, 1962: 264 cited in Arizpe and Styles, 2003, 2015) Our unit plans and details of Jane’s online training and in-person conferences can now be found at Jane Considine Education His first self-penned picture book The Storm Whale, since hailed a modern classic, won the inaugural Oscar’s Book Prize and was Dutch Picture Book Of The Year. His second, Grandad’s Island, garnered similar plaudits, winning the children’s book category of the AOI World Illustration Awards and being crowned Children’s Book of the Year at the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards. He won Oscar's Book Prize for a second time with Tad, a story about a tadpole making its way in the big, wide pond. All three of these books have since been adapted for the stage.