Puffin paperback 1st edition 1st impression very good+ clean tight binding with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Several of these exotic places provided material for his nineteen children's stories, but his best-known book STIG OF THE DUMP he wrote in an educational job at Rye, East Sussex. All the children's books I'm currently reading are ones I read aged 8 - 10 - and have never forgotten, the stories had such an impact on my youthful self.

Using the information above, draw a picture of all the things that Stig kept in his cave, adding labels to identify the objects. The book encourages children to explore and take delight in their ability to learn about the world and create. An honest child, Barney recounts his experiences faithfully to his grandmother and sister, which they dismiss as imaginary.Think of five objects that he might find useful, explain why they are useful and why you chose them. First edition thus, slipcased hardcover, has a minor skew to the binding, and a hint of shelf wear to the spine ends and cover corners. His grandparents don't believe Barney when he tells them about his new cave boy friend - but nevertheless, the two enjoy plenty of fun together. The spine is firm and uncreased and there is just a touch of rubbing to the joints ant spine tips and a crease to the top, front corner. We felt sorry for Stig and kept wondering why Barney didn't take him a coat or boots or a sleeping bag or some nice hot food !

We liked the caveman's observation that killing a fox was pointless as they taste bad, and the way he says this through mime !in the bright morning sunlight, as the sun is going down and / or at night under the light of the moon. Barney enjoys his time with Stig as they do a number of interesting things together such as; improving ‘Stigs’ den, collecting firewood, scaring a young group of boys’, catching some burglars who were attempting to steal Barney’s grandmothers silverwares and by going hunting. The book opens with the main character falling off the edge of the chalk pit even though he has been warned repeatedly about this possibility and he is fine. Some more domestic (home improvements, bullies/gangs), and some rather daring and exciting (a real escaped leopard! Perhaps it's because it combines my own experience and fantasies with those of my son Charles, in the English countryside we both knew so well.

One of the things that the story focuses on is the pleasure to be obtained from building and making things and how much can be done with what is at hand. Where the water dripped through a crack in the roof of the cave he had wedged the mud-guard of a bicycle. In 1926 he moved with his parents to Oliver's Farm, Ash, Kent, on the North Downs, alongside which was an abandoned chalk-pit. There were motor-car tyres and hats from old scarecrows, nuts and bolts and bobbles from brass bedsteads. Stig of the Dump tells the story of a boy who discovers a cave man living in a dump in the local chalk pits near his granny's house.The other thing I’d forgotten (or, perhaps, it didn’t register at all when I was a kid) is how wealthy the protagonist’s family are. In this activity, your Year 3 / Year 4 class will read the sentences and insert the words from the word bank to complete each sentence. And the final chapters, with their eerie otherworldliness and inexplicable time setting added to the mystery. In summary this book is well suited for a Key Stage 2 class and offers many possible activities and opportunities for students to explore their thinking. If adults are telling him it's his imagination, well maybe it is - maybe it's possible for an experience to be imagination.

Using the resources in this pack, your pupils will learn to make inferences and predictions about the character Stig. He is a curious boy, with a desire to explore, and is told not to go too close to the edge of the quarry. They become great friends, learning each others ways and embarking on a series of unforgettable adventures.

What makes this book remarkable is that it is signed by the author and as such is extremely uncommon. I like the resource - but keeping the story a 'surprise' from the children is tricky when the chapter 1 inference sheet has an example reference from later in the story! Making inferences and predictions about characters is also an important part of the 2014 national curriculum for English. A figure that resembles Stig is sighted working with junk in various locations around the area; but the book concludes that "perhaps it was only a relative of his", suggesting that Stig may not be the only caveman alive in the modern world. They raid the rubbish dump at the bottom, disturb a fox hunt, and capture an escaped animal from a circus amongst other scrapes.