I can remember my first experience of digital literature. Age seven, I witnessed my teacher loading Just Grandma and Me (Broderbund, 1992) onto our classroom computer, and everyone took a timed turn. Reluctant readers went first, and I devoured books, so knowing that my turn was destined to be among the last, I came back after school and asked my teacher if I could ‘read’ then instead. That afternoon, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Palmer, I scrolled, clicked, listened, watched, read, and laughed alongside Little Critter for nearly an hour.

Fast forward to 2024. Imagine my delight when I discovered that not only was Just Grandma and Me still around in its original format for PC, but was also available as an optimised download on multiple platforms. As an app published on the Google Play Store by interactive storybook specialist publishers Wanderful, it is reasonably priced as a once-off download (no in-app purchases or subscriptions needed) and appears to work just as well in terms of display and responsiveness on a 4.8” phone screen as on a ten-inch tablet.

The premise of the narrative is a simple but engaging one – a recount of an outing to the beach by a child and their grandparent, directly lifted from a classic children’s picture book (Mercer Mayer, 1983). It is written in a mix of dialogue between characters as well as breaking the fourth wall (the narrator addressing the reader directly) to progress the story. The set-up is also simple: the app’s home screen presents the reader with two choices – Read To Me or Let Me Play. Little Critter describes what each button will do for the benefit of younger or less confident readers. If in ‘Read To Me’ mode, the text on the page is narrated (and then, somewhat strangely, added to with audio-only dialogue) and accompanied by basic animations that follow the actions described. It automatically turns the pages, and returns to the home screen when finished.

Let Me Play mode is where readers are encouraged to go wild and explore. The dialogue is not available in this mode, but the reader can activate audio of the whole page’s text, or click on individual words to highlight and sound out. There are also numerous interactives accessed by clicking or tapping parts of the illustrations (such as making a cow moo, or the doorbell ring). Despite not adding anything substantial to the narrative they are short and simple, and not an insurmountable distraction.

The narrative subject matter has links both to the Early Years Framework and the Australian Curriculum V9.0. Children may see themselves and their peers reflected through the family structure depicted, the outing type, the likes, dislikes, fears and excitabilities of the main character, or any combination of these elements, as described in Outcome Two: Children are connected with and contribute to their world (ACEQA, 2024). The Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) dimension of the Australian Curriculum V9.0 describes students in Prep to Year 2 as identifying family structures, and location/nature of natural, constructed, and managed environments (ACARA, 2024) such as the beach and suburban landscapes.

While early years learners are not expected to be reading independently, in terms of outcomes related to literacy and English, Just Grandma and Me can be said to encourage exploration and curiosity about of a range of texts, including those presented via information technologies to access information and investigate ideas (ACEQA, 2024). Once they reach Prep, and up to Year 2, it is expected that through exploration of multimodal texts that demonstrate interactions with others, students should be developing an understanding of the purpose and function of digital literature features such as navigation buttons, swipe screens, links and images (ACARA, 2024).

It is important to note that while this was a book before it was an artefact digital literature, it is a digital work and not digitized literature, as might be concluded by readers of Heckman and Bouchardon (2012). Early reviews cited the quality of all aspects of the program – text display, animation, audio, optimisation as being excellent (Gladhart, 1992) as well as the narrative being described as delightful and charming (Ellison, 1997). As a living book, this is cited as being not only gold standard for when it was published (Hill, 1996) but also as an example of quality now (Commonsense Media, 2020) when the general consumer is, perhaps, more discerning than three decades ago.

Just Grandma and Me endures as a quality example of digital literature for early readers. For parents and educators, the trip down retro road/memory lane is equally worthwhile!

References:

Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACEQA) (2024). Belonging, Being, Becoming: Early Years Learning Framework. https://www.acecqa.gov.au/belonging-being-becoming-early-years-learning-framework

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (2023). P-2 English Standards Australian Curriculum Version 9.0. ACARA. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/english/foundation-year_year-1?view=quick&detailed-content-descriptions=0&hide-ccp=0&hide-gc=0&side-by-side=1&strands-start-index=0&subjects-start-index=0

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (2023). P-2 HASS Standards Australian Curriculum Version 9.0. ACARA. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/hass-f-6/foundation-year_year-1?view=quick&detailed-content-descriptions=0&hide-ccp=0&hide-gc=0&side-by-side=1&strands-start-index=0&subjects-start-index=0

Broderbund (1992). Just Grandma and Me. Microsoft Windows.

Ellison, C. (1997). Grandma gets a face-lift. In Home PC 4(12), 232. Imagine Media. https://global-factiva-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/redir/default.aspx?P=sa&an=hmfc000020011007dtc1000wv&drn=drn%3aarchive.newsarticle.hmfc000020011007dtc1000wv&cat=a&ep=ASE

Gladhart, M. A. (1992). Software for the Classroom: Just Grandma and Me. Childhood Education, 69(2), 119. https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/software-classroom-just-grandma-me/docview/210386499/se-2

Hill, M. (1996, Nov). Electronic books for kids. Link – Up, 13, 26. https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/electronic-books-kids/docview/210247919/se-2

Liu, J. (2020). Parents’ Guide to Just Grandma and Me. Commonsense Media. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/just-grandma-and-me

Mayer, M. (1983). Just Grandma and Me. Goldencraft.