ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses grandparent figures in contemporary Western children's literature by reflecting on their functions in the plot and on their construction in relationship to discourses on old age in society at large. The case studies draw from Flemish, Dutch, and British children's literature, and the analyses are framed with theories from age studies. Grandparents perform important roles in fictional children's lives: they function as substitute parents, but also as antagonists and as narrative devices to teach children about illnesses and death. In age studies, grandparent figures have been criticised for reinforcing ageist stereotypes, and especially the decline narrative and the image of the wise old mentor still surface regularly. However, many children's books not only correct these stereotypes, but also expose them and thus create room to criticise them. In the final part of the chapter, a digital research method reveals how grandparents are distinguished from other age groups in a set of 39 British children's books, and how age intersects with gender in their construction. This analysis affirms the occurrence of the aforementioned stereotypes. In addition, the grandfathers in the corpus talk more about the past than the grandmothers.
