Hey Grandude!

Hey Grandude! is a picture book for children written by Paul McCartney and illustrated by Kathryn Durst. It was published by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in September 2019. An audio version of the book with an instrumental soundtrack was also released.[1]

Hey Grandude!
AuthorPaul McCartney
IllustratorKathryn Durst
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's picture book
PublisherPuffin (UK) Random House (US)
Publication date
5 September 2019
Pages32
ISBN9780241375655

McCartney has six grandchildren. McCartney said in an interview with the BBC that the title of the book came from one of his grandchildren who "...used to call me 'Grandad' - just happened one day to say 'Grandude' and it kind of stuck...So the other kids started calling me 'Grandude'".[1]

The title is also a reference to McCartney's 1968 song "Hey Jude".[1]

McCartney started making up stories about Grandude, who he conceived of "as a kind of retired hippie having adventures with his grandchildren". McCartney said in an interview with the BBC that "I imagined him as a sort of eccentric old guy. He's got a grey beard, a little bit of a ponytail, so he's a little bit groovy. He has a little hat and a bow tie. And he has this magic compass so when he rubs that you can go anywhere". McCartney has stressed that Grandude is not based on him as he is not personally possessed of magic powers.[1]

Plot

The book is about a grandpa and his three grandchildren with a magic compass on an adventure.[2] The group "ride horses with a cowboy in the desert, face an army of crabs on a tropical beach and dodge an avalanche while having a picnic up a mountain".[1]

Critical reception

Reviewing the book in The Guardian, Kitty Empire wrote that the reader would "struggle to detect the imprimatur of one of the 20th-century’s creative greats here" feeling that as with other celebrity writers of childrens books, "The famous seem to miss the fact that intelligence is not wasted on the young" and contrasts Hey Grandude!'s plot with the "phenomenally sophisticated" 'con trick' that the mouse plays on the Gruffalo in Julia Donaldson's eponymous picture book. Empire concludes by writing that there is an "all-round risk-averseness here that's puzzling. The book concludes with everyone safely tucked up in bed...But every gleeful scenario ends badly, with Grandude and the chillers fleeing when some avalanche or stampede invariably kiboshes the thrills. Why didn't an editor ask McCartney to take this sad song and make it better?"[3]

The Sun wrote that it was a "charming tale from the music legend - with the most glorious illustrations that will be enjoyed by old and young" and OK Magazine magazine wrote that "it's sure to take pride of place on any little one's bookshelf".[2]

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References
  1. "Paul McCartney on being a 'Grandude' children's author". BBC News. 5 September 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  2. "Hey Grandude!". Penguin Books. Penguin Books. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  3. Kitty Empire (8 September 2019). "Paul McCartney on being a 'Grandude' children's author". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
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