In Saxon Kent the law says thieves should be executed, and soup made from a stolen sheep has been found in the Medway house. Young Edward takes the blame, but does his father know more than he’s letting on? And can he find a way to save his son from hanging?
Join master storyteller Terry Deary for a trip back in time to Saxon times and an exciting adventure.
A funny art heist mystery from the duo behind Chocolate Milk, X-Ray Specs and Me. One day, the Royal Family announces a £25 million reward for a painting that has been missing for about 200 years – a second version of The Mona Lisa. As the hunt is on for the missing painting, criminals start to think that it might be hidden at Mia and Jake’s school.
The layout of the book is fun and really appealing with different size fonts and small illustrations around the writing. The story is mainly told through emails between Mia and her granny but there is occasionally a newspaper article, blog, or notes between the characters. A great medium-length book for Year 4 and up, and one that will appeal to fans of Liz Pichon, Danny Wallace or Sam Copeland.
Explore the history of crime and punishment in Britain – from gallows and gangsters to jails and juries.
Learn about Scottish witch trials in A Kind of Spark, the Gunpowder Plot in Ally Sherrick’s Black Powder or real-life pirates in Blackbeard’s Treasure. We’ve put together a list of recommended children’s books to support the KS2 topic of how crime and punishment have changed through the ages.
Nik and Norva are sisters who live on a high-rise estate called ‘The Tri’, so named because of the 3 towers of flats in a triangle formation. With their dad being the estate caretaker, Nik and Norva know just about everyone who lives there, and they make it their business to know everything that’s going on.
In the summer’s height, a valued community member goes missing and there appears to be something very fishy going on. The sisters start looking and what they find confirms their worst fears – by the look of it, there’s been a murder.
Once they’ve dealt with the initial shock, Nik and Norva create a case file containing suspects, motives and alibis. With a limited police presence, they can make a nuisance of themselves by asking the right questions to the right people and, combined with some cunning eavesdropping, they begin to draw some conclusions. But as all the evidence points to one person, the pressure is on get to the real truth of the mystery before it is too late.
High Rise Mystery is an important book with cultural references and language that will resonate well with those who see themselves reflected in its pages. The chapters of this book are punctuated with case notes to keep track of the investigation, whilst the interaction of the characters gives a real sense of what it is like to live in this urban community. You can almost hear the sounds, taste the foods and feel your lungs burn when they have to endure 22 flights of stairs when the lift is broken in 30-degree heat. The result is a page-turner of a book, that you can’t put down because ultimately you want to know ‘whodunnit’!
A tongue-in-cheek twist on a well-loved fairy tale. This version of the Three Little Pigs story is retold from the eyes of the wolf, who claims the whole story was a misunderstanding and that he has been wrongly framed for his crime of killing the pigs. This picture book can be used in KS2 to explore themes of objectivity, prejudice and the importance of hearing different sides of the same story before reaching a verdict.
The Secret Diary of Kitty Cask: Smuggler’s Daughter is set in 18th-century Cornwall. It’s an exciting, action-packed adventure told in diary form. Kitty and her family live in a small fishing village. Her father is the head of a gang of smugglers who are trying to keep their contraband and illegal activities hidden from the excisemen. Kitty is supposed to stay safely at home but she regularly creeps out at night to watch her father and his men at work. Very soon she gets caught up in the action. There’s a shipwreck, secret caves, betrayal and a prison break.
I enjoyed how the book is a mixture of fact and fiction. The characters and settings are fictional but the book is packed with interesting factual detail – much of which is included in the footnotes. The Secret Diary of Kitty Cask is highly entertaining historical fiction for a young audience; it really brings a place, a time and a way of life alive for its readers.
The Good Thieves transports readers back to the roaring twenties in New York City, complete with its mafia presence, its speak-easy hide-outs and promises of wealth. Vita arrives in New York to find that her grandfather has been robbed of his family home, Hudson Castle, by mafia-linked scammers. Clever and spirited Vita gathers together a crew of unlikely vagabonds to help her reclaim it, becoming the ‘good thieves’ who will carry out a Robin Hood style mission leading to a daring heist scene.
This is a classic narrative poem from 1906. It tells the story of an 18th Century highwayman who rides the roads at night to rob travellers. He falls for a landlord’s daughter called Bess and comes to a terrible fate in a tale of betrayal and sacrifice. This version won the Kate Greenaway Medal for its atmospheric illustrations.
If you study this poem in KS2, take the opportunity to show pupils the picture book the Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – they will enjoy their newly informed understanding of the inspiration behind an old favourite picture book!
Gangster School is a warm and witty series that will hold a high appeal to young readers. Imagine a Hogwarts for criminals and you will very quickly understand the premise of these entertaining and light-hearted books. The students at Blaggard’s Gangster School take lessons in thievery, fabrication and stealth as they desperately attempt to become less ‘dependable’ and make their felonious families proud by proving they have what it takes to succeed in the world of crime.
An action-packed historical adventure that transports the reader back to England at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. Black Powder tells the story of a boy called Tom, who finds himself at the service of an intriguing stranger called ‘The Falcon’. The stranger seems to be the only person who can help Tom to save his father from being hanged, but as Tom journeys towards London he discovers that the Falcon has his own, somewhat explosive, mission in mind. Suddenly Tom is faced with the choice of freeing his father or saving the king from an assassination plot. This gripping adventure will capture imaginations and is likely to resonate with anybody who has ever felt like knowing which people and beliefs to trust can sometimes be extremely difficult.
review
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Curriculum links (if relevant)
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