Inspiring 4-5 week English unit year 4/5 The Real Thief William Steig Shrek author

'The Real Thief' is one of my favourite children's books, here is an exciting unit I have created around this wonderfully engaging story about a loyal goose who is falsely accused of a crime and the emotions that surround this. The unit includes some drama to bring the story to life. It covers reading comprehension, poetry scripts, vocabulary development, shape poetry, persuasive writing and story writing in the first person. The key is not telling the children what happens next, so they do not know who the real thief is until you want them to.The language is exquisite. The second part of the story explores the real thief Derek (a mouse) and his changing emotions . Children learn to empathise when they think of how much they sometimes desire toys etc and can explore both sides of the story, learning that characters are more complex than good/bad.