My family loves camping. During camping season weekends couldn’t come fast enough. We would load up our travel trailer and just go. Recently, there have been a few books published about camping that my students and I have just loved and made so many connections too.
Grandad’s Camper by Harry Woodgate is one of those books! The story is narrated by the little girl who spends every summer at her grandad’s cottage. She loves when he tells her stories about him and gramps. One story in particular is about how grandad and gramps used to be adventurers traveling in their camper. The story ends with the little girl and her grandad taking an adventure together in the camper.
This book is another example of how powerful incidental diversity books are. Through the pictures and words in the book readers notice that the characters are different races and the grandad and gramps are a gay couple. No issues around any of the characters identities are raised or made to be overcome in the story.
My students were making connection after connection with stories they have about their grandparents, summers camping, and even some with having lost a grandparent. There is so much to unpack in this story and I’ve already added it to my narrative menu of mentor’s book bin!
