Rebekah's Secret Grandpa

Even before starting my Art Foundation I had considered making a transgender children's book as my final project. I knew it was something that was lacking within the canon of children's literature. Representation is very important to me, and I love the act of book making, and using art to tell a story and communicate meaning and feeling.

I chose a grandparent because I find in Western society we often dismiss the elderly and consider their lives in a stationary way, so I wanted to emphasise that important changes can still happen in the lives of older people. I also found when researching popular culture that elderly transgender people are extremely underrepresented. 

The project took six weeks from conceptualisation and experimentation, to producing a finished product, which was displayed at the final show. I then self-published on Amazon. The illustrations are entirely handmade and then scanned, with lettering added digitally.

Click here to buy the book in English

Summary

The story follows Rebekah's Grandma, who seems to be getting confused; buying men's clothes and spelling her own name wrong. The characters all believe she's loosing her wits and are very worried. Grandma tells Rebekah she has a secret Grandpa. Rebekah spends the night imagining what he will be like, and the next day Grandma calls a family meeting. Everyone arrives, but Grandma's not there. There is a man Rebekah's never seen before. She calls him Grandpa and he starts crying and laughing happily, and everyone realises Grandma is Grandpa! The family are pleased that he's not getting confused and that's he's told them. Grandpa explains that although Rebekah needs to use male pronouns for him, nothing will change. It ends on Rebekah telling him, "You're way better than all the secret Grandpa's I imagined."