Images of grandparents in young children's picture books in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Forty children's picture books published in the United Kingdom were scrutinsed and analyzed against three checklists in order to determine the nature and quality of the images of grandparents that they contained. The roles of grandparents in these books were generally seen as positive, as were their relationships with their grandchildren. There were marked contrasts in their physical appearance and their activities were many and varied, reflecting the wide age range covered by grandparenthood. Generally, grandmothers appeared to be more positive in their outlook, although they tended to be confined more often to domestic activities. Although grandmothers and grandfathers occurred in these books in almost equal numbers they rarely appeared together. This created an impression of a single existence not necessarily experienced by real life grandparents in general.