You may think you know the riddle of the boy, the wolf, the sheep and the lettuce, but this book will prove you wrong. Read Allan Ahlberg's SHOCKING EXPOSE of the truth behind a story we think we all know, including: Wolf horror! Canoe shock! Fibbing! Exclusive Lettuce revelations! Moments of brilliant and unforgettable beauty! You'll never think of boys, wolves, sheep, lettuces OR riddles in the same way again.

The Story Maker is an innovative manual designed to help children aged 4-11 write creatively. Packed with original colour illustrations, the book is full of handy tips and guidance that will inspire children of all abilities to write their own stories and broaden their vocabulary. Each chapter focuses on a key element of story writing; for example story types, settings, characters, feelings and time. The chapters contain writer’s tips and easy-to-implement suggestions, as well as interactive activities designed to help children practise using new vocabulary. Introductory material on narrative planning explores story development and guides children to shape their own stories Key features include: a simple layout that will appeal to children photocopiable material that can easily be used in class a separate introduction for older children who can work alone an expanded section on narrative planning with new content on character, setting, plot, conflict and resolution now in larger A4 format for ease of photocopying The updated third edition of this inspiring resource can be used by teachers and parents to develop children’s creative writing and help support National Curriculum Literacy objectives in Key Stages 1 and 2.

Over 3,200 entries An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers. This online-exclusive new edition adds 60,000 new words, including over 50 new entries dealing with authors who have risen to prominence in the last five years, as well as fully updating the entries that currently exist. Each entry provides details of a writer's nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication.

This innovative handbook aims to help children write creatively. Designed for children aged 4-11 years, it is suitable for children of all abilities. The strong visual emphasis will inspire children to write their own stories and expand their vocabulary. Writer's tips' front each of the twelve story: elements; characters; feelings; size; speech & sound; speed; settings; texture; colours; objects; time; and weather. "The Story Maker" is integral to teaching the National Literacy Strategy Objectives at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. Simple layout with colour coded tab system that will appeal to children and ESL Students. It is fully illustrated in colour throughout to inspire story making. It contains: broadens vocabulary; photocopiable storyboards at the beginning of each section to encourage children to sequence; and, separate introduction for older children who can work alone. Narrative Planning explores story development and how links can be made.

He felt a curious tingling in his hands and feet. He felt his nose becoming cold and wet, his ears becoming flappy. The thought in his mind was: 'I'm turning into a dog!' Eric is a perfectly ordinary boy. Perfectly ordinary that is, until the night when, in fifteen seconds flat, he turns into a dog! Eric and his best friend are determined to sniff out the truth - what makes an ordinary boy go 'woof'?

The Bucket by Allan Ahlberg - the enthralling childhood story one of Britain's best-loved children's authors 'My mother, who was not my mother, I see her now, her raw red cleaner's hands twisting away at her apron as she struggled to speak. Adoption was a shameful business then in many people's eyes, the babies being mostly illegitimate. Better not speak of it.' Allan Ahlberg was adopted as a baby. In 1938 he was picked up in London by his new mother and taken back to Oldbury in the Black Country. Now one of the most successful children's book writers in the world, in The Bucket he describes an oddly enchanted childhood lived out in an industrial town during the 1940s, in conditions which today we might describe as 'deprived'. He writes of a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a tough and fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life assurance policies ('£6 if the child dies under age 3') and fearsome bacon slicers, of half-remembered trips to his mother's sister's grave and to the bluebell woods. And of his first days at school: 'Allan could do much better. He is most inattentive and dreamy at times' (school report, December 1946). Using a mix of prose and poetry, supported by new drawings by his daughter Jessica and old photographs, The Bucket retrieves a childhood which lovers of Ahlberg's classic picturebooks The Baby's Catalogue, Burglar Bill and Peepo! might feel they have glimpsed before but which are now exquisitely brought to life. This beautiful, exquisitely designed book, which will also appeal to fans of Gervase Phinn, Alan Bennett, Roald Dahl and Nigel Slater's Toast, will be loved by generations of Ahlberg fans. 'Allan Ahlberg has a string of children's classics to his name' Nicolette Jones, Guardian Born in Croydon but brought up by his adopted parents in the Black Country town of Oldbury, Allan Ahlberg held jobs as a gravedigger, postman and plumber's mate before becoming a teacher. He taught for ten years before collaborating with his wife Janet on a series of much-loved, now classic children's picture books including Peepo!, Burglar Bill, Cops and Robbers, Each Peach Pear Plum, Woof!, Heard it in the Playground, Please Mrs Butler, The Boyhood of Burglar Bill, The Pencil, Friendly Matches, The Improbable Cat, Goldilocks, My Brother's Ghost, The Mighty Slide, Collected Poems, The Boy, the Wolf, the Sheep and the Lettuce and The Ha Ha Bonk Book.

Allan Ahlberg's five poetry books, written over a period of twenty-five years – Please Mrs Butler, Heard it in the Playground, Friendly Matches, The Mighty Slide and The Mysteries of Zigomar – have delighted generations of children and received many accolades and prizes. Allan has sifted through them and chosen a collection to delight and entrance a new generation of readers and their parents. Here are all the trials and tribulations of childhood, embracing school, quarrels, friendships, football and storytelling from a much-loved author and poet. Charlotte Voake's black-and-white illustrations enchance the charm of this handsome and definitive collection.