Bloomsbury Guided Reading: Granny Ting Ting by Patrice Lawrence

Granny Ting Ting was the first book of mine to be published, in 2009. It has recently been spruced up and reprinted. It was initially commissioned by A & C Black who were looking to diversify their reading scheme list.  Long before I was published, I had an ambivalent relationship with ‘diversity’. I’d been involved with many a diversity initiative in the charity sector and sat on a good few diversity panels about services for children and families, years before being asked to comment on representation in children’s publishing. ‘Diversity’ often feels like a slightly nebulous term that either encompasses so much that it’s meaningless or is used as an alternative for ‘not white’.

 I was born in Brighton, brought up in Mid-Sussex and although my mother was born in Trinidad, she has lived in England for more than twice as long as she’s lived in Trinidad. Did I really want to write a book that reminded me that in spite of this, I was ‘diverse’? (Even last week when a friend asked me about middle grade books by Black British writers, I struggled to name many. I was also struck by how most of the books I could name were about subjects relating directly to our ethnicity.)

So did I want to write this book?

The answer is – yes, of course! I first visited my family in Trinidad when I was six.  It was a big family. One (terrifying) grandma, seven aunties, three uncles and so many cousins I lost count at fifty. Neither of my parents had any family in the UK so it was a shock to be surrounded by relatives. Fresh from 1970s Brighton, it was even more of a shock to see so many people with brown skin going about their everyday business. Here, I was not a novelty. I had a heritage. I had roots.

The memories of my childhood visits to Trinidad are still strong – sitting on the porch and wondering at the fireflies in the night and humming birds during the day. Chasing my grandma’s chickens round the yard, recovering from the heat with coconut water still inside the coconut or homemade juice. I loathed the long drop latrine toilets but was appeased by sugar cane, or sugar cake or anything involving copious sugar.

I first took my daughter to visit her Trini family when she was four and again when she was seven.  I knew how important it was for me to feel that I had anchor. In an ideal world, my daughter should not have her identity challenged, but racism is still here – both explicit and insidious. I wanted her to know that she too had roots. Three generations of Lawrences with UK passports and our sense of belonging here still feels fragile.

I wrote Granny Ting Ting shortly after my daughter’s second trip to Trinidad. ‘Granny’ is actually based on my Aunty Baby who herself was suffering from cataracts – though it is actually my mum who can’t ride a bicycle. Believe me, I tried to teach her! Aunty Baby was the third oldest of the siblings and the repository of all the family’s history, recipes and fables. I think it’s Aunty Baby who told me about my mum throwing herself out of a tree when she came face to face with a hairy caterpillar. It is definitely Aunty Baby that makes the best tamarind balls, hottest pepper sauce and pholourie (spiced dough balls) with homemade green mango chutney.

A few years ago, I was invited by Pop-Up Festivals to talk about Granny Ting Ting in primary schools in Telford. It was the day after the Brexit referendum and I had travelled up from London on an early morning train feeling shocked and a little frightened, not just for me, but for my daughter, my mum, my Italian stepdad. The racism and xenophobia that had blossomed during the lead up to the vote was not going away. But in those classrooms, I met children who themselves had roots in different parts of the world. I met children who’d tried to teach a sibling to ride a bike, and children who could name that one family member who knew everything about everyone. I met teachers who’d created art projects around Trinidad’s nature and Carnival and gone out of their way to find tamarind so the class could make tamarind balls.

So, yes, I was a Brighton-born Bruce Springsteen fan whose first book was written for ‘diversity’ purposes. But it was also a reminder about how glorious it was to discover and share my heritage. And in those classrooms in Telford, I saw how stories can bring us together in spite of the divisive world outside.

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Find out more about Patrice's book, Granny Ting Ting. 

A word from our friends at Bloomsbury about the guided reading website:

Here at Bloomsbury, we’re passionate about reading and so we’re proud to publish some of the best children’s books around: from award winning fiction and stunning picture books to diverse and engaging readers for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.To help you and your class get the most out of this wealth of brilliant books, we’ve partnered with the experts at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education to create teaching notes for over seventy of our favourites, including books by Sarah Crossan, Julia Donaldson, Neil Gaiman, Patrice Lawrence, Zanib Mian, Louis Sachar and many, many more. The teaching notes are packed with brilliant ideas for activities and engaging discussion material, helping you to put high quality books at the centre of your teaching. 

Visit the Bloomsbury website for a wealth of free guided reading notes...