Crossing the Divide: Dementia and Developing Understanding between Young and Old in Contemporary Children’s Literature.

A discussion of the representation of intergenerational relationships between children and teenagers and their grandparents who are suffering from dementia. The chapter examines the ways in which writers for children demonstrate approaches to the problems and the development of understanding. Texts discussed are: 'The Granny Project' (1983) by Anne Fine; 'Billy Elliot' (2001) by Melvin Burgess and Lee Hall; 'Unbecoming' (2008) by Jenny Downham; David Walliams’ 'Grandpa’s Great Escape' (2015), and 'The Dementia Diaries' (2016) by Matthew Snyman and the Social Innovation Lab, Kent.