Kids’ book review: Grandma McGarvey Joins the Scrum

The Runaways

Grandma Joins the Scrum Grandma McGarvey is an extraordinary old lady. She doesn’t care a hoot about fashion. Her striped pink jersey, garish floral knee length skirt and green socks tucked into yellow and green sneakers look like collector’s items from the local op shop. And her white hair is very unruly. But she lives life to the max. She is always up for a new experience and a bit of excitement.

In Grandma McGarvey Joins the Scrum the story starts off with a bit of bad luck. Her car breaks down but rather than wait for a passing motorist to come to her rescue she pulls at the wires, heaves on the bumper and kicks the tyres. Not surprisingly the car won’t budge. It is only when her dog gets frantic and starts to yelp that Grandma McGarvey goes off to find help.

Inadvertently she finishes up on a rugby field and finds herself part of the team. She is tackled and falls in the mud, and is forced to join in a scrum where she is SQUEEZED like a bottle of sauce. But undeterred she hurtles down the field afterwards at breakneck speed towards a very satisfying finish!

Amazingly Grandma McGarvey comes out unscathed and the grateful team are only too willing to help her to sort out her car problems. So all’s well that ends well.

You may well have read this story to your children as this is a new edition of this much-loved classic which was has been put out to celebrate 30 years of Grandma McGarvey’s hilarious adventures.

Undoubtedly your grandchildren will enjoy it just as much as they did.

Grandma McGarvey Joins the Scrum was written by Jenny Hessell  and illustrated by Trevor Pye is published by Scholastic. RRP $17.99

Reviews by Lyn Potter

Parent and grandparent, Avid traveller, writer & passionate home cook

Read more by Lyn here.