Hey Grandude! facts for kids

Hey Grandude! is a picture book for children written by Paul McCartney and illustrated by Kathryn Durst. It was published by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in September 2019. An audio version of the book with an instrumental soundtrack was also released.

McCartney has eight grandchildren. McCartney said in an interview with the BBC that the title of the book came from one of his grandchildren who "...used to call me 'Grandad' - just happened one day to say 'Grandude' and it kind of stuck...So the other kids started calling me 'Grandude'".

The title is also a reference to McCartney's 1968 song "Hey Jude".

McCartney started making up stories about Grandude, who he conceived of "as a kind of retired hippie having adventures with his grandchildren". McCartney said in an interview with the BBC that "I imagined him as a sort of eccentric old guy. He's got a grey beard, a little bit of a ponytail, so he's a little bit groovy. He has a little hat and a bow tie. And he has this magic compass so when he rubs that you can go anywhere". McCartney has stressed that Grandude is not based on him as he is not personally possessed of magic powers.

Plot

The book is about a grandpa and his three grandchildren with a magic compass on an adventure. The group "ride horses with a cowboy in the desert, face an army of crabs on a tropical beach and dodge an avalanche while having a picnic up a mountain".