When Grammy Looked Away!
What Did Zoe See?
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Parent/Grandparent/Narrator Story Grammy and Zoe lounge on the porch, looking across the grassy green backyard. The house sits among gently sloping mountain foothills. Grammy settles into her recliner chair with a mug of coffee close by. Zoe is not sleepy at all. She loves having Grammy to herself. She happily chats and looks across her yard… Grammy only wants a few minutes of quiet… Then Grammy remembers a wonderful film with Morgan Freeman … “Look out there and tell me what you don’t see,” A mischievous expression passes over Zoe’s face and her eyes sparkle. Her mind is fizzing with possibilities. “Look Grammy, look! A herd of elephants is trampling through the yard” laughs Zoe. She sees the elephants, moving gracefully, with their wrinkled grey skins and large, lazily flapping ears. Zoe sees the big Daddy bull elephant and the graceful Mum cow elephant. With them is an older Grandma, who as the matriarch, leads the family. A small calf trots by his Mum, stepping between her long, strong legs with their forward-bending knees. Grammy jerks awake from her eye-resting. She doesn’t see the elephants ambling into the trees. Zoe can still see a tail disappearing, the edge of an ear, and a grey trunk peeking out from the forest edge. Buster, the big black fluffy dog, is fossicking in the grass. His curious eyes search the distance for a last glimpse of the herd. "You just missed them. They're stomping into the forest," laughs Zoe. Grammy smiles, "But I can see seven butterflies." The butterflies' wings flap like tiny elephant ears, kaleidoscopes of colors amongst the flowers….. A lone Coyote is strolling across the road. He is not scared by the loud noise of the Jenga bricks. He boldly looks at Grammy and Sam as he passes by. Buster hides behind the water chute, he’s not taking any chances with that big, confident dog who is not even wearing a collar. He must be a really tough dog. “But I can see one trotting coyote,” says Grammy. Grammy, Sam, Zoe, and Buster are ALL watching in amazement as they see the herd of elephants troop of monkeys … seven butterflies six hummingbirds…… and the lone coyote. Grammy, Sam, Zoe, and Buster all stare; amazed, astounded, and flabbergasted by the huge congregation of creatures. When Grammy Looked Away Child Story “Look Grammy, look! A herd of elephants is trampling through our yard” laughs Zoe. “You’ve just missed them. They’re stomping into the woods” laughs Zoe. “But I can see seven butterflies,” says Grammy… ============================================= “Look Grammy, look! A pride of lions is lazing about on our truck” calls Zoe. “You’ve just missed them. They’re heading off to the forest” calls Zoe. “But I can see three gliding garter snakes,” says Grammy. ====================== “Look Grammy, look! A pod of dolphins is leaping in the river,” cries Zoe. “You’ve just missed them. They’re swimming back to the ocean,” cries Zoe. “But I can see five stripy chipmunks,” says Grammy. ================================================= “Look Grammy, look! There are all the animals in the yard,” yells Zoe. “Look Grammy, look! Now can you see them?” yells Zoe
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Book Details
About the Book
Grammy, babysitting her grandchildren who live in another country, wants a few moments of peace to drink her coffee, so she sets a task for the chattering Zoe: “Tell me what you cannot see.” And so the game begins and the book is born! Accumulating animals on every page, the story follows in the footsteps of wonderful legacy books, such as The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch, in its predict-and-recall-friendly- format. As parents and grandparents, we recognize our families in this charming book, written, with love, to entertain and educate. For parents who work away; families living in different households, you’re on video-link from your sofa to their bedroom, your child follows the junior version, with its full-page illustrations while you read the narrative. Adults and children have an identical book and follow the story at their own level. For grandparents whose long-distance WhatsApp calls may be, like mine: “So how is your Minecraft going?” And so follows a fascinating description of something, for which I have no terms of reference. The solution is simple. Here is the ultimate read-together book. You will meet chatty Zoe, Grammy Roz in her afternoon siesta mode, young Samuel who only wants to help Grammy, and Buster the dog, who knows a scary coyote when he sees one. An amazing assortment of wild animals are brought to the backyard by Zoe’s fertile imagination, joining beautifully illustrated local wildlife. And… can you spot Buster the dog, who wanders onto every page? With the charming family interactions of the Bluey animations, the story entertains with the fun of prediction and participation in the story while including collective nouns, adjectives, similes, verbs, and adverbs. It is an outstanding and versatile resource for classroom teachers and home educators because Grammy is a teacher to her core!
About the Author
Roz still enjoys working in education after more than forty years. She holds an Honorary BA in Education from the University of Bath, England. She is a grandmother to eleven grandchildren, scattered across the globe, and a freelance tutor. Teaching students from 3 to 63 years, she was a class teacher, program manager for disengaged teenagers, head of special education at a tertiary College, an Ofsted Inspector for Nurseries, and lead practitioner for her County’s Virtual School, overseeing the education of children in care. Her early learning series “Flying Start” was published by Folens. In 2021 Roz was very proud to reach The Digital Women Industry Awards: National Finals shortlist, from over 200 nominees, for Role Model of the Year. Roz loves writing stories for each of her grandchildren. She publishes children’s education packs, teaching creative writing through storytelling, with multi-sensory tasks, away from a screen. Find them at https://talkwell2writewell.co.uk and on Amazon. Roz plays in recorder consorts, in the UK and USA, being Cornish, she has sailed all her life and was a national sea angling coach. She loves dancing and volunteering at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.