Grandmother's Winning Smile

Long-listed for the Macmillan Prize, Stanley Gazemba's five-star-rated Grandmother's Winning Smile is the story of a poor Kenyan village boy, who overcomes incredible odds to emerge one of the top students in the country in his school exams, thanks to the ingenuity and stubborn resolve of his illiterate but proud grandmother. When Kinuthia’s father sold the family cow and deserted them to look for a job in the city, Kinuthia thought that all his hopes for an education and a bright future had come crashing down. The cow had been the family’s sole income earner. Now he was stuck with his ageing grandmother for a relative. The only option left was to drop out of school and join the work gangs in search of a job at the flower farm that had recently opened in his village in Central Kenya. Kinuthia’s grandmother had other plans for her only grandson. Grandmother’s Winning Smile is the story of this brave old woman who, though penniless, was gifted with amazing cunning and wit, and whose stubborn pride wouldn’t allow her to let Kinuthia join the work gangs. If you enjoyed the movie “First Grader” you will enjoy this!