Jeanie is seven years old, with a large extended family including her mum, dad, younger brother, three nana's including Bad Nana and her aunts, uncles and cousins too.


Her Nana isn't bad in the traditional sense like stealing or other crime committing, though she does love the stories that come with them from others like in the news. She is an eccentric character who loves dressing in all black and glitzy earrings and has a fond addictive love of sherbet lemon sweets.


Through mini tales we see how she has a set park bench, gets to go along and help at the younger kids school and go on the trips too, she can put all the men in their places too handling them effortlessly! She sticks up for the kids in hilarious ways and is a very creative grandmother.


Overall, it's huge fun, shows family love, has some really cool designed characters in simple drawing graphic style that's really effective and bold artwork throughout the whole book with popping colours for contrast.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

As a fan of Sophy Henn's picture books, I was very excited to see that she has a series for young readers coming out and Bad Nana didn't disappoint! Bad Nana is such a likeable character that people young and old will love her - she's always up to mischief!

Older Not Wiser introduces us to 8-year-old Jeanie, our narrator, as she tells us of some of the tricks that her Bad Nana has gotten up to. Jeanie is such a sweet narrator, and, along with Sophy's distinctive illustrations, she really comes to life through the stories she's telling. What I liked about the format of this book is that you can dip in and out of it as it's made up of three parts, which makes this an easy book to enjoy.

I think that younger readers will love this series; it reminds me a bit of Judy Moody. There's just enough silliness to keep you engaged, but it's all with a purpose and adds to the warmth of the book.