Resources
My Little Pony colouring sheet
DK have have made a fun My Little Pony colouring activity sheet for Chatterbooks groups. Remember to use lots of bright colours!
Year 3 Library Membership Report
Report on the Year 3 Library Membership element of the KS2 Book Clubs and Library Membership project, funded by the Department for Education.
Chatterbooks in Primary School Settings - Report
A report from Coventry University’s Centre for Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement who evaluated Chatterbooks in 15 primary schools in the West Midlands, in a project funded by The Mercers’ Charitable Foundation in 2014/2015.
Time-Travellers Chatterbooks activity pack
If you could travel through time where would you go? To the past or the future? How might you get there? In a time machine – or maybe through a time-slip? Whom would you like to meet? This Chatterbooks Time-Travellers activity pack brings you a wealth of reading and activity ideas to inspire your time-travelling imaginations!
Max Crumbly activity sheet and competition
Simon & Schuster will soon be celebrating the publication of the first book in The Misadventures of Max Crumbly series by Rachel Renée Russell, author of the hugely popular Dork Diaries. We have a fun decorate your own school locker activity sheet for Chatterbooks groups to download. Plus, best decorated locker wins a great prize!
The Vegetarian - reading notes
Reading notes for Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book The Vegetarian. Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, commits a shocking act of subversion by becoming vegetarian. As her rebellion causes rifts in her marriage, Yeong-hye spirals further and further into...
The Story of the Lost Child - reading notes
Reading notes for Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book The Story of the Lost Child. The fourth and final instalment of the Neapolitan Novels series, this is the dazzling saga of the friendship between two women: brilliant, bookish Elena and fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both women fought to escape the neighbourhood in which they grew up: a prison of conformity, violence, and inviolable taboos. Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous in a world...
A Strangeness in My Mind - reading notes
Reading notes for Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book A Strangeness in My Mind. This is the story of boza seller Mevlut, the woman to whom he wrote three years’ worth of love letters, and their life in Istanbul. Between 1969 and 2012, Mevlut works a number of different jobs on the streets of Istanbul, from selling yoghurt and cooked rice to guarding a car park. He observes many different kinds of people thronging the streets, he witnesses all of the transformative moments in the...
The Four Books - reading notes
Reading notes for Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book The Four Books. In the ninety-ninth district of a sprawling labour camp, the Author, Musician, Scholar, Theologian and Technician are undergoing Re-education, to restore their revolutionary zeal and credentials. In charge of this process is the Child, who delights in draconian rules, monitoring behaviour and confiscating treasured books. But when bad weather arrives, followed by the ‘three bitter years’ of The Great Famine, the...
A Whole Life - reading notes
Reading notes for Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book A Whole Life. Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn’t ask for her hand in marriage but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas’ heart is broken. He leaves his valley...
A General Theory of Oblivion - reading notes
Reading notes for Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book, A General Theory of Oblivion. A wild patchwork of a novel, which tells the story of Angola through Ludo, a woman who bricks herself into her apartment on the eve of Angolan independence. For the next 30 years she lives off vegetables and pigeons, and burns her furniture to stay warm. But the outside world seeps in, through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers and a note attached...
DKfindout! Chatterbooks activity pack
Here is an introduction to www.dkfindout.com – a great website for young people to search, learn and explore information about their favourite subjects, and all their homework topics. It’s clear, colourful, attractive, and easy to use, with hundreds of information pages plus quizzes, videos and animations.
Thrills, adventures, spies and detectives! Chatterbooks activity pack
Following up on our original Spies and Thrillers Chatterbooks activity pack here is another pack on the same theme, with more great reading, discussion and activity ideas. This pack is geared more to the older children in your group; it does also have reading suggestions which younger children will especially enjoy.
Peter Jay Black video
Summer Reading Challenge Author of the Month Peter J Black talks Counterstrike, the thrilling fourth installment in his Urban Outlaws series.
Five Minutes' Peace activity sheets
Celebrating an amazing 30 years, we have fantastic Five Minutes’ Peace activity sheets from Walker Books for your Chatterbooks group. Colouring in sheets and a maze!
The Big Friendly Read Chatterbooks activity pack
This pack contains reading and activity ideas to use in book groups and with whole classes to celebrate Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday! Get ready for The Big Friendly Read, Summer Reading Challenge 2016, in libraries everywhere.
What's So Special About Shakespeare? video
At this very moment, someone, somewhere in the world, is reading Shakespeare. And, even though he died 400 years ago, someone else is writing about him, or acting in one of his plays. Here, Michael Rosen shares just some of the reasons why Shakespeare is so special, taken from his book What’s So Special About Shakespeare? (Walker Books)
Five everyday phrases from Shakespeare video
Michael Rosen, author of What’s So Special About Shakespeare? (Walker Books), shares his top 5 everyday phrases that come from Shakespeare’s plays!
Top 10 Shakespearean Insults video
Discover Michael Rosen’s favourite Shakespearean insults, from “cream-faced loon” to “Banbury cheese”! You can find out all about these and more in Michael Rosen’s What’s So Special About Shakespeare? (Walker Books)
Dragonsitter series Chatterbooks activity pack
This pack celebrates the funny and brilliant Dragonsitter series by Josh Lacey and Garry Parsons. Imagine having a full-sized fire-breathing dragon come to stay in your house! These books are perfect for children aged 5 years upwards, to read or have read to them. The stories are short and inviting, written as a series of emails – simply told yet with lots to read between the lines.
Josh Lacey video
Summer Reading Challenge Author of the Month Josh Lacey talks The Dragonsitter to the Rescue
Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise activity sheets
These Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise activity sheets from Walker Books include Spot the Difference, drawing sheets and a maze
Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise video
In this video from Walker Books, author Sean Taylor reads his hilarious picture book Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise
The Darkening Path teacher notes
These notes for The Darkening Path series by Philip Womack, are filled with ideas for discussion and activities, feature themes from the book and offer suggestions for further reading for your Chatterbooks group.
Impossible! teacher notes
These notes, with ideas for discussion and activities, cover themes from Impossible!, including relationships between the characters, and aspects of life and theatre at the end of the 1950s, with comparisons to today.
Alan's Big, Scary Teeth activity sheets
These Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth sheets from Walker Books include spot the difference and colouring in activities.
Alan's Big, Scary Teeth video
An alligator who snaps, becomes an alligator who th-naps – this video from Walker Books introduces Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth
Frank Einstein and The Terrible Two Chatterbooks pack
Here are two series for children aged eight and upwards – books full of fun and facts, inspired pranking, and inspirational inventiveness! The Frank Einstein series is all about Frank, a kid-genius scientist, his wacky robots, and his amazing creations – you’ll enjoy science, laughter and great stories. And in The Terrible Two you’ll meet Miles and Niles, a hilarious pair whose lives are pledged to pranking. Their story is also about friendship – about fitting in, making your mark, and about...
Jon Scieszka video
Summer Reading Challenge Author of the Month Jon Scieszka talks about his Frank Einstein series
Mango and Bambang: Tapir All At Sea activity sheets
These Mango and Bambang: Tapir All At Sea activity sheets from Walker Books include Spot the Difference, drawing sheets and jokes!
