Gangsta Granny, written by David Walliams, is a comedic/fiction children's book published on 27th Oct 2011, and illustrated by Tony Ross, which is about a boy named Ben who stays at his grandma's house on fridays, and discovers a thrilling secret, which turns his boring stays into exciting adventures, with his grandmother.

The story begins with Ben, forced to stay at his grandmother's house again, because his parents have gone to see a dancing show, not expecting to do much with her, as all she likes to do is play scrabble, read criminal books and eat cabbage soup. Ben isn't too fond of his grandmother as the things she likes to do are too boring for him. Ben is forced to eat his grandmother's cabbage soup and her cabbage pudding, but Ben has already had a bad day and so he pours the soup onto a plant and it shrivels up and dies. He tells her he has finished his soup, barely avoiding a stomach ache. Ben spends his time in his room reading magazines he buys from the local agent, run by Raj, about plumbing, as that is his dream job in the future, but Ben's parents do not want Ben to become a plumber, instead, they want him to become a famous dancer.

At day's end, Ben is forced to go to sleep at 8 o’ clock or he would be told off by his grandmother and not much interesting has happened to him throughout the day. His grandmother tells him he needs to brush his teeth, but Ben hated brushing his teeth, even if he was 11 years old, so he faked brushing his teeth and pretends to be sleeping to avoid his grannys bedtime stories, but Ben had a plan, he was going to escape from granny's house. He waited for his grandma to fall asleep. First, he had phoned his parents who were at the “strictly stars dancing show” and his father told him that if Ben called him again, he would be there at granny's house until Christmas. So he just went back to his bed.

Fast forward to next Friday, his parents drop him off once again and his grandmother makes him some boiled eggs. He doesn't fancy them so he flicks them out of the window and goes into the kitchen to fetch himself some chocolate biscuits, but when he picks up the jar, he feels something heavy in the jar, he shakes it, and it sounds like marbles or stones.

I like this part where he shakes the jar and it doesn't feel like cookies because it adds some suspense to the part where he finds out his grandma's secret, this including the other hints such as the fact that she likes to read crime stories. If you aren't already hooked to the story, then this part certainly will. This book has served as an eye-opener to how much fun and imaginative literature can be. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is just starting out reading chapter books, and I’d say the same for every David Walliam book as they’re all full of fun and emotion and jokes, not to mention the made up words in just about all of them. I will always remember this book in the bottom of my heart and will always enjoy it.