Our Favourite Summer Reads starting with A Mouse called Julian.

It might be the school holidays but that’s no excuse to stop reading! This summer we will be sharing a few of our favourite children’s books to inspire some reading over the long summer holidays.

1. A Mouse Called Julian by Joe Todd-Stanton

“It’s a fun story about an unexpected friendship between a mouse and a fox. Following its natural behaviour, a fox attempts to eat Julian the mouse out of his house. When the fox tries to sneak into Julian’s burrow it finds itself stuck headfirst in Julian’s front door! What follows, is an involuntary entrapment of the fox which gives time for the two natural enemies to get to know and understand each other better.

I loved it so much that I created two picture boards for our Literacy Labs, illustrating the habits and behaviour of these two lovely animals. In our Literacy Labs, we work with disadvantaged children who for whatever reason are struggling to make progress in the classroom and are the furthest behind in their literacy skills. We learn about their background, their particular challenges and interests; we find out what sort of learner they are and adapt our teaching approach, using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic modes of learning to help the child overcome their learning barriers.

This book is a wonderful story of fierce enemies becoming understanding and life-long friends”.

“Next time you see a fox in your garden, it may be on its way to pay a home visit to a mouse friend!”