One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.

The Highway Rat is our new book for our Literacy lessons in Year 1. They have all really engaged with the story and the characters. It has provided us with many different discussion points - one child pointed out to me today that the Highway Rat is naughty not only because he steals people's food, but also because he talks to strangers! This gave us the opportunity to have a little PSHE talk about 'stranger danger', and why the Highway Rat has not been making good choices! Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Shaffer (The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom), The Highway Rat is a delightful story. It’s largely written in verse which lends it a tremendous pace and sense of excitement that will engage younger children, particularly in years one and two. The moral issue of theft which forms the central conceit of the book lends itself to further extraction and questioning. Using talk partners, you can ask children to come up with responses to particular questions – is The Highway Rat right to steal their food etc? What would you do if The Highway Rat stole your food? The Highway Rat is a baddie. He sits on the highway or the road through the mountains and he robs the people of all their food, even if he doesn’t like it. Even the leaves the ants are carrying, the Highway Rat takes it all. He’s so bad that he steals his own horses hay. Find out about the highwaymen of the past. What did they do? Do you know the names of any famous highwaymen? As the story develops, the Highway Rat’s horse has to carry more of the things that he has stolen. How much might each of these things weigh? How much would the horse have to carry in total?We have spoken about how the book rhymes, and how it can be read in a rhythmical way. The second time that we read it, the children were able to join in with some of the repetitive sentences, which they all really enjoyed. This seemingly teaches him a lesson, and, thinner, greyer and meeker, the Rat lands a job in a shop ... what kind of shop is for you to guess, but believe me it is probably an easy guess! 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.

It seems to serve the development of comprehension skills and other social and emotional aspects of learning quite neatly. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. Although he prefers pastries and chocolate and cake, he’ll take anything you have. For as he says, “I am the Rat of the Highway – the Highway – the Highway. Yes I am the Rat of the Highway, and whatever I want I take.” Another delightful instant classic by Donaldson (writer) and Scheffler (illustrator) as a pesky Highway Rat is stealing all the other animals sweets and pastries.

Cast quotes

Imagine that one of the animals in the story is being interviewed by the police. What would they tell the police about their encounter with the Highway Rat? Find out about the author, Julia Donaldson. Watch this video and think of questions that you might like to ask her. Write a diary entry from the point of view of the Highway Rat. What does he do each day? How does he feel about it? As mom who was an English Lit major, I LOVE this cheeky little book...it's a retelling of/homage to Alfred Noyes' poem "The Highwayman" (without all the, you know, shooting and death and ghosts and whatnot). My son loves the great rhythm, and at two, fills in the words at the end of each stanza. The fact that it's a long poem makes it a fun read-aloud, and it's great to start to expose little ones to poetry concepts at an early age, from a literacy standpoint. Plus, it's just fun.

It could also be used for PSHE lessons, to explore why stealing is wrong and how it can affect the victim’s life. In science they can look at food chains and animal habitats and use the story to explore these topics further. Choose a scene from the story and act it out together, you can improvise an imaginary conversation or use some of the words from the story. Make a poster Look at the use of rhyming words in the story. Can you think of other words which rhyme with the ones used?I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. You get a sense (or at least I did) whilst reading the book that it’s a very ‘active’ story. By that I don’t just mean its plot is full of cause and effect, but also that it lends itself to being acted out. This is a fun story that you can use to celebrate and promote reading. Using some of your class as a chorus, a few children as the lead characters and after having made character masks and props in class, The Highway Rat would make a perfect assembly piece. Absolutely marvelous! As an adult reader I totally adore the clever and delightful textual parody of Alfred Noyes' classic The Highwayman ballad (and indeed also much appreciate that with The Highway Rat, Julia Donaldson has just taken Alfred Noyes' external form and has not made her text content wise into some silly love story and her Highway Rat into a romantic type of hero, as no, that would in my opinion have made The Highway Rat annoyingly maudlin and not the engaging and so very much fun poetic parody of The Highwayman that it is). Create a price list for the cake shop and imagine that some customers would like to buy a selection of the cakes. How much will they need to pay? How much change will they need to be given? What coins would be used for this? Draw a picture showing the inside of one of the Highway Rat’s bags. What different items has he stolen?

In case you haven't noticed, this is like a children's retelling of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. I was surprised by how big a hit this was. The children ate it up! Julia Donaldson divides her time between Scotland and West Sussex where she lives with her husband. Axel is from Hamburg, and has lived in the UK since 1984. He lives in London with his family but travels extensively. The Highway Rat is described as a ‘baddie’ and a ‘beast’. Can you think of any other words that might be used to describe him? Both Julia and Axel enjoy international renown for their work. Julia was the UK Children’s Laureate 2011-13 and honoured with an MBE for services to Literature. Axel’s artwork is exhibited internationally; he has illustrated for many charities, and designed the Royal Mail Christmas stamps in 2012. We have also managed to link it to art - we created Wanted posters for the Highway Rat. The children had to use their literacy skills to describe the rat and his terrible crimes, and then got the opportunity to be artistically creative as well.

Clip

The artwork is colorful and fun. The rat looks a little like Zorro, but he is a baddie for certain. I love Julia Donaldson’s work. She works with Axel as illustrator and they make an excellent team. The Highway Rat’ (2016) is another first rate little adventure for younger readers from the accomplished pen of Julia Donaldson, with the usual and lovely accompanying illustrations by Axel Sheffler. Last Christmas the company produced a two-part animated special based on Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. Premiering on BBC One on the 26 and 27 of December the films featured the voices of Dominic West, David Walliams, Rose Lesley and Jemma Chan. With over 10 million viewers for their first broadcast slots, the films have just been nominated for a BAFTA and an International Emmy, and have already won multiple awards including the Cristal for best TV Production, Annecy.