European
Picture 
Book
Collection

Country: England, UK
Language: English
Title: Gregory Cool
Author: Caroline Binch
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
ISBN: 0-7112-0890-5
Chosen by:   Penni Cotton, NCRCL, Roehampton University, UK.

Rationale for Choice:
Gregory finds himself in a world where everything is different…but slowly he realizes that there is richness in difference.

Re-telling
When Gregory wakes up on his first day in Tobago with his grandparents, his heart sinks. The food is strange, the sun is too hot, his cousin Lennox is on another wave-length   - and there are none of the television/video games and other the high-tech gadgets that a cool city boy takes for granted.

Activities for use in school:
•  Discuss the visual narrative of ‘Gregory Cool' with your class. How is Tobago different from the European country in which you live? Why is this?

•  Look at a map of the world and locate first your country, then Tobago. Maybe this will help answer the first question.

•  List all the difference between the two countries on one side of the board. Then list all the similarities on the other.

•  Now list the advantages and disadvantages in the same way.

•  Get the children to think about times when they have been in situations that seem very strange to them but, after some adjustment, they have begun to see that it was an OK place. eg starting school, going on holiday, visiting relations, starting a new hobby/club etc.

•  In pairs get the children to discuss these issues and how they were resolved.

•  Then ask them to fold a sheet of paper vertically down the middle. On one side they will need to write all the difficult situations that they have found themselves in and, on the other, how they resolved them. Was it quite naturally or did they have to make an effort. Let children present their ideas to each other if they wish.

Reflection:How important is it to share and try to understand the lives of those who live in different ways from us?

NB Further literature and language-based activities can be found in
Picture Books sans Frontières available from tb@trentham-books.co.uk
or www.amazon.co.uk