Mixed Race Book Review: “My Two Grannies”

Mixed Race Book Review My Two Grannies

As part of our new mixed race book review series, I will be starting to review books featuring or highlighting mixed race or multiracial characters.

Today’s feature is the book : My Two Grannies by Floella Benjamin– a favourite of mine and my daughters’.

There’s perhaps no-one more apt to write a children’s book than British children’s presenter Floella Benjamin, a black woman in an interracial relationship who has two mixed kids. She’s a household face and name to British 30 and 40 somethings who grew up with her face on their television sets and is today the Vice President of Barnardos Children’s Charity.

The story is about a little girl named Alvina whose parents are going away for the weekend. Alvina gets very excited that her two grannies, whom she loves with all her heart will be coming to take care of her.

But her grannies are from two very different places. Granny Vero is from Trinidad and Granny Rose is from England.

Both Grannies have very different taste in food, interests and things they like to do. And they soon begin to argue about how best to take care of Alvina. Alvina comes up with a way they can both work together and enjoy each other’s ideas, recipes and activities. In the end, they both both realise they can appreciate what the other brings and can even learn from each other! A celebration of the different parts of what makes Alvina who she is!

My Two Grannies is a lovely book for mixed heritage or mixed race children who have family members from different parts of the world or from different cultures. My two oldest daughters love the book because they can relate to having two grannies of different colours and from different cultures. It’s a great way to get them to celebrate diversity whilst engaging them in their own real-life experience of having two grannies hailing from different parts of the world.

We highly recommend My Two Grannies and love that it’s written by such  a well-known children’s presenter. So do consider it for your next purchase!

For more book reviews with mixed race characters, click here…