Synopsis

aurice, Keith and his Rodent friends set off on the last of their scams: to fake a plague and exhort huge amounts of money from communities to rid them of it. In Bad Blintz they got more than they bargained for and it takes all of their cunning to survive.
The story is loosely based on "‘The Pied Piper of Hamlyn", with clever references to story-telling, especially through the character of Malicia.

Key Moments for Reference

p.13 Maurice and rodents’ plan introduced (expanded p.34/5).
p.22 Darktan description.
p.23 Hamnpork description.
p.27 Explanation of why the rats can talk.
p.27/8 Explanation of the rats’ names.
p.32 Agreed that this scam would be the last & "one to remember".
p.46 Malicia – character introduced.
p.53 Darktan description.
p.54 Problem introduced: suspicious – no rats in Bad Blintz.
p.73-9 References to other stories.
p.74/5 Humour (Maurice, Keith and Malicia).
p.257 Maurice "dies".

Likes?
Dislikes?
Patterns?
Puzzles/Questions?

Themes/Issues?

• The notion of story.
• Materialism/Greed.
• Culture in transition. Choices.
• Construction of society. Strata/organisation.
• Communication.

Shape/Structure?

• Opening: leaves reader with questions. Begins in present, flashes to past, returns to present.
• How is the pace maintained? Weaving of action, description and dialogue. Strong affiliation with characters and cause. Moved quickly. Mystery.
• Relevance of Mr. Bunsy? What did it add to the story/impression of characters? Effectiveness of Chapter starters?

Style?

• Development of character through: dialogue, description, actions, thoughts, other characters’ thoughts.
• Lots of dialogue. Effect?
• Like Maurice? Why? Well-drawn characters?
• Naming of mice!

Vocabulary/imagery?

• Strong verbs, adverbs, adjectives communicates to the reader the development of setting and character. Really studied how cats and rats look/move etc.
• Mood? Dark? How created? Linked to theme?

Links with other texts?

Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine – Yr3/4 text, viewpoint of cat, humour. Other alternative versions of Traditional tales or fairy stories: Ella’s Big Chance (Cinderella), The 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, I Was a Rat, Revolting Rhymes, Princess Smartypants, The Paperbag Princess, Princess Alvera and the Dragon, We 3 Men.

Activities

Class novel

• Support the children’s understanding by asking questions to support them in identifying the issues outlined above.
• Summarise each chapter as you read and map onto excitement graph. Build map of the story (pictoral).
• Collect stunning descriptions for the children to use in their own writing.

Openings

• use this as an example, comparing to others (e.g. ‘Wolf’ by Gillian Cross) in a Venn Diagram.
• Brainstorm what you know/want to know (in order to show the way the author ‘hooks’ in the reader).

Character

• pick out sections of the text and annotate for what it tells you about a character (or sort true/false statements and justify with evidence from text).
• Analyse how the author builds the character (direct and inferred; action, use of reported clauses, choice of verbs etc; descriptions; thoughts; thoughts of other characters) Use these criteria to support writing: teacher model with one character (e.g. Malicia) and children do the same for e.g. Maurice. (Would need to be reading as a class novel to make sure this is contextualised!).
• Hot seat characters at key moment(s) to generate develop understanding and vocabulary, as a precursor to writing.

Link to Non Fiction

• N-C report on rats.
• letter writing from/to different groups within the book.
• discussion or persuasive writing – animal welfare issues.

Link to Fiction

• Parody of another traditional tale.