Charlie Cook's Favourite Book: 1

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Carry out a survey of family and friends to find out their favourite books from the past. What favourite stories did your parents / grandparents read? Why did they like them? How have stories / books changed over time? This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.

A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. Make sure before you begin to read that the seating is such that all the children can actually see the illustrations. You can slowly turn the book as you read from above. This takes practice. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). A listening task could be to write down all the words they hear at the end of a sentence that rhyme. They could do this on their own with the first listening and then put any words they have written down onto the board. Compare and find any that rhyme. They can listen again and see if they find any other words which rhyme with their word bank they had previously compiled.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.

Take some digital photos of your friends reading their favourite books in some weird and wonderful places! Cabe destacar que la historia es cíclica por lo que no cuenta con los tres elementos estructurales que caracterizan a los cuentos; presentación, nudo y desenlace. This book could be used in the classroom setting to encourage boys engagement with literacy. The main character of this book is a young boy called Charlie; this would make the book more appealing to young boys and perhaps motivate them to read. Furthermore, the characters in the story also appeals to boys imaginations. The underlying message of this book is that people from all walks of life enjoy reading, which promotes the concept of reading for enjoyment amongst children.With storybooks the illustrations are the key to animating the text for the listener. For language learners they are all the more important as they can guide a learner to a better understanding of the language they are listening to. Look at the different fonts used in each book. Could you choose appropriate fonts to use in different places (e.g. comic strips, news headlines, adverts). Cada historia introduce un tipo de cuento diferente, viajamos desde los países más alejados de fantasía, pasando por fábulas, cuentos cómicos, de misterio o aventuras, presentando así a todos los tipos de personajes que podemos encontrar en ellos como animales que hablan, fantasmas, princesas, piratas, caballeros, dragones, etc. Esto consigue transmitir al iniciado lector en las diferentes emociones que se pueden experimentar ante los diversos géneros literarios existentes. The book itself includes an extended range of verbs in the past tense such as ‘curled up’, ‘read’, ‘found’, ‘cried’, ‘went’, ‘told’, ‘shook’, ‘jumped’, ‘built’, ‘chose’, ‘saw’, ‘waved’, ‘stole’, ‘caught’… This is just a selection. You could select a few from throughout the book and get the class to tell you which story they hear the verb in.

They could draw their own picture from the book they find the most interesting from Charlie’s collection. This could lead onto telling their partner which book it comes from and why it’s their favourite. Make sure everyone is listening before you begin. You should allocate a part of the room for telling stories. If you don’t have the luxury of moving tables, chairs or even children then have at least the ritual of clearing desks and so creating a change in the pace of the lesson. If you don’t have their undivided attention to begin with it will be a hard slog to get their attention while reading and you will spoil the experience for those who are trying to listen when you stop to tell others to listen. You can spend a whole lesson just with the double spread of pictures of Charlie’s books on his bookshelf. Each book has a symbolic image that represents the genre e.g. a ghost for Out of this World, a collection of ghost stories. Or a pirate and ship for Shiver me Timbers or My First Encyclopedia with a series of objects labelled with the first letter. With this picture you could make a poster sized version for the whole class to see. You could Tippex out the titles leaving just the illustrations. The children could then predict what sort of books they are. From kings and queens to aliens and ghosts, there’s something for everyone in Charlie’s amazing book! Teaching Ideas and Resources: EnglishYou may not have the luxury of an extended budget from your school; you may have no budget at all. You may have a few storybooks in a school library or in a local bookshop. You will always have on-line bookshops with discounted books though and as a last resort, then why not invest in a couple of favourites of your own. You could always suggest it to your school as they may have only considered the use of text books and may be open to the use of real storybooks in class. Look at the different characters shown on the front cover. What stories include those characters? What adventures might they have in this book? Look at the way this story is structured. Could you make your own version about a person who reads a book about a character who finds a book about an animal who steals a book… ? Furthermore, the beautiful and creative illustrations add to the fun. This is a great introductory text to use as an example of a story with key stage one children. The rhyming throughout is a trademark of Donaldson’s stories, subtly introducing poetic language and new vocabulary. Each illustration reflects the type of text allowing children to see the difference between a comic, a magazine or a traditional fairy tale. This is useful as part of the national curriculum, key stage one children identify the features of different types of texts and produce their own in English.

The Bearo Annual' featured Sir Percy Pilkington and a dragon, who laughed at Sir Percy reading a joke aloud. 'Just Joking!' was a book about Rowena Reddalot (great name - must be on goodreads!), a well-read frog, who leapt into the library to discover a little girl reading. Rowena jumped onto the book screaming, 'Reddit! Reddit! Reddit!'. Lo recomiendo muchísimo para trabajar con niños que se inician en la lectura ya que ofrece numerosas oportunidades de adentrarse en el mágico mundo de los cuentos. These performances are provided for those who use British Sign Language. The interpreter will be at the front of the stage and lit with a spotlight. They will provide a linguistic and artistic interpretation of the show for people who are D/deaf or for whom BSL is their preferred language. What is your favourite book? Could your class make a set of posters to advertise your favourite books? Use publishing software to create your own story about a person who reads a book about a person who finds a book about…

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Before launching into any story spend a little time looking at the front cover picture and title. You’ll be surprised at the benefits of doing this. The children can guess the content of the story. This will not only help them brainstorm ideas about what they may be about to listen to, it will also arouse their interest. They will be drawn into listening to you once you begin reading. They could learn about different types (genres) of books and complete an updated version of the earlier class chart and see if they all still prefer the same genre of book as before. What was the ghost's book about? It was about a cosy armchair and boy called Charlie Cook … and he's still reading! Carry out a survey of your class / school to find out their favourite books / authors. Could you create a report about the results? Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.