Pearl wants a grandmother. What with a too busy mum and an absent dad, a gran would be just the thing - preferably warm and cuddly and understanding. Winston, her guinea-pig, is understanding. He and Pearl communicate wonderfully, and Winston is Pearl's best friend. But Winston is old and Pearl must face that his kidney failure is causing him great pain. She holds him while he is put to sleep, but can't bury him, so she pops him in the freezer where she can bring him out and talk to him occasionally. Mum's new boyfriend has a mother that Pearl thinks will be just the ticket as a grandmother, but when gran appears on the scene with grandson Mitch, she is a far cry from Pearl's cuddly image. Large and loud, addicted to cigarettes and sporting a nasty cough, gran is a huge disappointment. However, Pearl soon learns that gran is very understanding after all, and she helps Pearl let Winston go. Together they give him a Viking send- off, and Pearl knows he will always be with her inside her head. Then she and Mitch learn that gran is dying of lung cancer. Gran wants to be 'helped' to die, and while euthanasia is discussed, in the end the children simply help her go out the way she wishes - unlikely as that is. This is a deeply moving, wildly funny book. I cried, and I have never done that before in my reading of many books with death as a theme. It is also a deeply healing book. Absolutely wonderful!