100 books like The Truth about Grandparents

By Elina Ellis,

Here are 100 books that The Truth about Grandparents fans have personally recommended if you like The Truth about Grandparents. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of How to Babysit a Grandma

Lynda Pilon Author Of The Sleepover

From my list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved being around children, first as a primary school teacher, then as a parent and now as a grandma. The love, laughter, humour, and fun that I share with my grandkids keep me young in mind, body, and soul. My story is about the wonderful adventures we have. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the world through the eyes of a child and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Lynda's book list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents

Lynda Pilon Why did Lynda love this book?

Jean Regan has written a beautiful, funny, heartwarming story about the love and fun that is shared between the different generations, a grandmother and a granddaughter. I love the way she has reversed the roles of her main characters. This approach will appeal to little ones who will definitely want to babysit their grandma while still enjoying all the wonderful activities that a visit to Grandma’s house entails. The illustrations are cute, detailed, and add to the storyline. This is a great little book for parents to read to their children before they visit and a good source of activity ideas for grandmas to have for their little guests once they arrive.

By Jean Reagan, Lee Wildish (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Babysit a Grandma as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

Celebrate the special bond between grandmas and grandkids with this delightful New York Times bestseller that puts the kids in charge of babysitting...if just for one day. The perfect gift for Mother's Day, Grandparent's Day, and any day shared with Grandma!

When you babysit a grandma, if you're lucky, you'll have a sleepover at her house! And with the useful tips found in this book, you're guaranteed to become an expert grandma-sitter in no time. (Be sure to check out the sections on: How to keep a grandma busy; Things to do at the park; Possible places to sleep, and…


Book cover of My Grandparents Love Me

Lynda Pilon Author Of The Sleepover

From my list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved being around children, first as a primary school teacher, then as a parent and now as a grandma. The love, laughter, humour, and fun that I share with my grandkids keep me young in mind, body, and soul. My story is about the wonderful adventures we have. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the world through the eyes of a child and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Lynda's book list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents

Lynda Pilon Why did Lynda love this book?

Claire Freedom uses animal characters to tell this story about the wonderful, loving relationships that exist between grandparents and a grandchild. I love the fact that it is never quite made clear whether the grandchild is a boy or a girl and as a result, the story applies to both. Children will quickly see themselves as the little zebra having fun and being spoiled rotten by two loving grandparents. The rhyming adds to the flow of the book.

By Claire Freedman, Judi Abbot (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked My Grandparents Love Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

I'm off to Gran and Grandpa's, There's a BIG smile on my face,
I always feel wrapped up in love, When I stay at their place!
Affectionate, funny, and joyful, this is the perfect book for little ones and their grandparents to share. My Grandparents Love Me brings together two huge stars of the picture book world, internationally successful illustrator Judi Abbot and award-winning author Claire Freedman.


Book cover of My Grandpa Is Great

Lynda Pilon Author Of The Sleepover

From my list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved being around children, first as a primary school teacher, then as a parent and now as a grandma. The love, laughter, humour, and fun that I share with my grandkids keep me young in mind, body, and soul. My story is about the wonderful adventures we have. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the world through the eyes of a child and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Lynda's book list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents

Lynda Pilon Why did Lynda love this book?

I love the humour in this story. Grandpa definitely knows how to entertain and have fun with his grandson. This book shows how special bonds are formed between the young and the not-so-young. Age is not a barrier. The words and illustrations work extremely well together. In many instances, the picture gives the correct meaning to the written part which results in bringing a smile to your face. This book is a fun read.

By Gaby Goldsack,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked My Grandpa Is Great as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Grandmas From Mars

Lynda Pilon Author Of The Sleepover

From my list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved being around children, first as a primary school teacher, then as a parent and now as a grandma. The love, laughter, humour, and fun that I share with my grandkids keep me young in mind, body, and soul. My story is about the wonderful adventures we have. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the world through the eyes of a child and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Lynda's book list on funny stories about grandchildren and grandparents

Lynda Pilon Why did Lynda love this book?

I love this crazy, silly book. The plot will captivate the children’s attention as there are so many twists and turns throughout the story. Are the grandmas really grandmas or are they aliens? How will they solve this mystery? The use of rhyme adds to the flow and humour of the tale. Illustrations are imaginative and off the wall funny. The ending is priceless. I think there definitely should be a sequel.

By Michelle Robinson, Fred Blunt (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Grandmas From Mars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fred and Nell's grandma is babysitting and the kids couldn't be happier. But hang on, there's something not quite right about her. In fact, she's acting very strangely indeed. And is that a spare eyeball? A tail? A striped tongue? That's NOT their grandma; it's an alien ... RUUUUUUN!

Find out how Fred and Nell overcome the invasion by grandmas from Mars (and get their own grandma back!) in this completely crazy and brilliantly bonkers, fun and irreverent picture book from the talented Michelle Robinson, with illustrations by rising star Fred Blunt.


Book cover of Never Forget Eleanor

Anne O'Brien Carelli Author Of I'll Remember, Poppy

From my list on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease for children.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an educator, author of children’s books, and caregiver of a loved one with dementia, I felt that I had to write a story about the disease from a child’s point of view. When I became a caregiver, I was struck by the lack of information for children and the misconceptions of the public about the disease. I wanted to create a story that reassures children and gives them guidance on how they can help be a caregiver. I added the Author’s Note to provide accurate information to adults so that more people are aware of the signs of dementia and to build understanding and compassion. 


Anne's book list on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease for children

Anne O'Brien Carelli Why did Anne love this book?

This story shows how an individual who loves crossword puzzles and storytelling can be affected by the disease of dementia.

Elijah notices that his grandmother Eleanor is struggling with language and figures out a way to carry on her legacy. It’s so nice to see this aspect of the disease (memory and language) addressed in a positive, helpful way.

By Jason June, Loren Long (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Never Forget Eleanor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

This poignant story from New York Times bestselling author Jason June and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long reminds us of the life-changing power of words and the ways we remember the ones we love who've been affected by Alzheimer's or dementia. Perfect for fans of Drawn Together and The Rough Patch.

Elijah loves spending time with his grandma Eleanor. She knows all the best words to answer tricky crossword puzzles and to tell the most beautiful stories to her family and friends.

Everyone calls her "Never Forget Eleanor" because she remembers every word she reads and person…


Book cover of The Celestial Realm

Niamh Campbell Author Of We Were Young

From my list on capturing the haunted geography of Dublin.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Irish writer drawn to the ways in which the biggest questions – of human nature, existence, late capitalist realism, politics, ethics, and consciousness – play out via the minutiae of specific locations; in this case, the city of Dublin, where I’ve spent most of my adult life. I don’t think of cities as monuments but living and complex microcosms of concerns and urgencies the whole world shares.

Niamh's book list on capturing the haunted geography of Dublin

Niamh Campbell Why did Niamh love this book?

A non-fiction recommendation this time, and a recent release.

Hennigan’s essay collection is a beautifully written account of the final years, and opaque recollections, of her grandmother Phil, who spent much of her life in various psychiatric institutions.

I have been interested in this theme for years – Ireland, in the first decades after independence from Britain, has some of the highest rates of citizen incarceration in the world: prisons, borstals, orphanages, magdalen laundries, and psychiatric hospitals both provided employment and regulation and also kept a whole population of ‘problem’ people out of sight).

This fact, and its repercussions in culture today, fascinate me, and Hennigan’s gentle and loving consideration of Phil’s trauma, loneliness, mania, and the maternal lineage it involves (her own mother was institutionalized) is also an angry illustration of just how badly women and the working class have been treated here.

By Molly Hennigan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Celestial Realm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Phil doesn't like physical affection. She doesn't love you because you don't exist. She doesn't care if you have something important coming up. A busy week, a daunting appointment, a divorce, because she believes the world is going to end in the morning. Every morning."

Having grown up visiting her grandmother in various psychiatric hospitals, Molly Hennigan began writing about the gaps in and intimacies of her relationship with this matriarch. Tracing the organic path of her grandmother's experience to her great-grandmother's time in Irish mental hospitals, she explores her own family trauma and what it means to be an…


Book cover of How to Eat a Mango

Ismée Williams Author Of Abuelo, the Sea, and Me

From my list on picture books for grandparents to read to grandkids.

Why am I passionate about this?

My grandparents played a pivotal role in my childhood, living with us and raising my brother and me while my parents worked long hours. Some of my favorite memories of those years are lying in bed as Abuelo told me stories that made me laugh instead of making me sleepy, cooking picadillo with my abuela in the kitchen, and going on long walks along the beach with my abuelo. Though they didn’t speak to me in Spanish, they taught me to sing nursery rhymes and enticed me with sticks of Big Red gum to get me to learn how to roll my r’s. 

Ismée's book list on picture books for grandparents to read to grandkids

Ismée Williams Why did Ismée love this book?

I love mangos. I love to eat them, and I love them in smoothies! So, I was immediately drawn to this book. I found it to be beautiful and evocative. My own grandmother used to tell me about all the different fruits they ate in Cuba but she only told me the Spanish names for them as she said they didn’t exist in the US. 

I love how the abuelita shows her granddaughter–who insists she doesn’t like mangos–all that the mango brings us and that we must remember to be thankful. I really love this lesson of how we have to listen to the earth and she will give back to us–a thoughtful introduction to the importance of caring for the world around us.

I love that this story teaches us to count the blessings in life and to slow down and appreciate them. I found the illustrations to be…

By Paola Santos, Juliana Perdomo (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Eat a Mango as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Abuelita teaches Carmencita that you can’t rush mango-eating: it takes five steps to appreciate the gift and feel the love.

Carmencita doesn’t want to help Abuelita pick mangoes; she doesn’t even like them! They’re messy, they get stuck in her teeth, and it’s a chore to throw out the rotten ones.

But Abuelita adores mangoes, and patiently, she teaches Carmencita the right way to eat them. Together, they listen to the tree’s leaves, feel its branches and roots above and below, and smell and feel the sweet, smooth fruits. Each step is a meditation on everything Mamá Earth has given,…


Book cover of We Germans

L. Annette Binder Author Of The Vanishing Sky

From my list on German complicity and resistance in WW2.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born in Germany and came to the US as a small child. My parents spoke only German at home but rarely talked with me about their years in Germany. Years after my father had died, I came across a photograph of him wearing a Hitler Youth uniform. What I learned about his childhood and his family inspired much of my novel The Vanishing Sky. Though my novel is finished, I continue to read about the German experience of WW2 because it resonates for me personally and because the lessons it teaches us are still relevant today.

L. Annette's book list on German complicity and resistance in WW2

L. Annette Binder Why did L. Annette love this book?

An epistolary novel written as a letter from an elderly German man explaining his time as a soldier on the Eastern Front to his grandson. The novel has both the immediacy of a wartime narrative and the introspection of a memoir. “Eat now, sleep now, march now, follow your leader — that’s what they’d demanded of us; we’d followed, and they’d led us into disaster,” the narrator says as he describes his own predicament, but it serves to explain the horrors of the regime as a whole. It resonated for me personally, highlighting the silence and shame that surrounds the experiences of so many Germans who were young adults during WW2. Starritt is half-Scottish and half-German, and We Germans was inspired in part by his grandfather’s time on the Eastern Front. The novel was the recipient of the Dayton Peace Prize.

By Alexander Starritt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked We Germans as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

Shortlisted for the Prix Femina 2022

Shortlisted for the Prix Medicis 2022

'An impressively realistic novel of German soldiers on the Eastern Front' Antony Beevor

'Starritt's daring work challenges us to lay bare our histories, to seek answers from the past, and to be open to perspectives starkly different from our own' New York Times

When a young British man asks his German grandfather what it was like to fight on the wrong side of the war, the question is initially met with irritation and silence. But after the old man's death, a…


Book cover of See You Someday Soon

Varsha Bajaj Author Of A Garland of Henna

From my list on inter-generational themes.

Why am I passionate about this?

It’s often said that it takes a village to raise a child. I grew up in an intergenerational family in India. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles provided that extended community. Grandparents can pass down traditions, ensuring the preservation of culture. Stories that speak to the reality of multi-generational households can normalize and celebrate the presence of elders. The number of Americans living in multigenerational households is about four times larger than it was in the 1970s, yet the educational potential and the joy of these relationships are often ignored in literature.

Varsha's book list on inter-generational themes

Varsha Bajaj Why did Varsha love this book?

So often grandparents and other loved ones live far away these days, in a different city or even a different country, and staying connected can take work. This sweet story is touching, like many of Pat Miller’s other picture books. The illustrations are simple, and the page cutouts add anticipatory fun.

By Pat Zietlow Miller, Suzy Lee (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked See You Someday Soon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 3, 4, 5, and 6.

What is this book about?

Someday soon, I'll see you.
Even though you are there.
And I am here.
So very far apart.

In this heartfelt picture book, a child imagines ways to connect with a grandmother who lives far way. Whether by rocket ship or jet pack, train or in a plane, any journey is worth it to see someone you love.

With an inviting, accessible text by Pat Zietlow Miller and inventive art from the critically-acclaimed illustrator Suzy Lee, this picture book reminds us that, no matter the physical distance between us, the people we care about are never far from our hearts.…


Book cover of The Greatest

Ismée Williams Author Of Abuelo, the Sea, and Me

From my list on picture books for grandparents to read to grandkids.

Why am I passionate about this?

My grandparents played a pivotal role in my childhood, living with us and raising my brother and me while my parents worked long hours. Some of my favorite memories of those years are lying in bed as Abuelo told me stories that made me laugh instead of making me sleepy, cooking picadillo with my abuela in the kitchen, and going on long walks along the beach with my abuelo. Though they didn’t speak to me in Spanish, they taught me to sing nursery rhymes and enticed me with sticks of Big Red gum to get me to learn how to roll my r’s. 

Ismée's book list on picture books for grandparents to read to grandkids

Ismée Williams Why did Ismée love this book?

This is a love story to grandparents everywhere but what I find interesting is that this story features the grandfather as the main character, and not the child. I love this story because it shows the grandfather being humble and feeling blessed as he does not quite understand why his grandchildren believe him to be the greatest at everything - for surely he is no Mozart when it comes to music, or Picasso when it comes to drawing. Even when his grandchildren exclaim he is the greatest storyteller, the grandfather looks back at those who came before him and taught him to tell stories, and lead a seder, and gives his ancestors the credit.

I absolutely love how the grandfather grapples with whether to tell the grandkids all of this - that he is really not that special at all - but then realizes that it is the LOVE that…

By Vesper Stamper, Veera Hiranandani,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Greatest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.


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