Every afternoon, after lunch we will settle down to a story.

This term we will be reading ...

Milo Imagines The World

Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. There’s the whiskered man with the crossword puzzle; Milo imagines him playing solitaire in a cluttered apartment full of pets. There’s the wedding-dressed woman with a little dog peeking out of her handbag; Milo imagines her in a grand cathedral ceremony. And then there’s the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers; Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo–walking the same path, going to the exact same place–Milo realizes that you can’t really know anyone just by looking at them.   

Fantastic Mr Fox

Boggis is an enormously fat chicken farmer who only eats boiled chickens smothered in fat.

Bunce is a duck-and-goose farmer whose dinner gives him a beastly temper.

Bean is a turkey-and-apple farmer who only drinks gallons of strong cider.

Mr Fox is so clever that every evening he creeps down into the valley and helps himself to food from their farms - and those ghastly farmers can't catch him!

Now the farmers have hatched a plan to BANG-BANG-BANG shoot Mr Fox dead! But, just when they think Mr Fox can't possibly escape, he makes a fantastic plan of his own.

Traction Man

With an action outfit for every occasion, Traction Man patrols the house. Whether he is saving toys (in latex space suit and Perspex helmet, teamed with Rocket Boots); searching the sink for the lost wreck of the sieve (in sub-aqua suit, fluorescent flippers and infra-red mask) or rescuing damsels in distress (in jungle pants, camouflage vest and a bandanna), Traction Man is never less than stylishly turned out and expertly accessorised. He is the last word in heroic fashion flair - until, that is, the day that he is presented with an all-in-one knitted green romper suit and matching bonnet by his owner's granny. Can Traction Man overcome the humiliation of his desperately dowdy new look and rediscover the action hero within or will the burden of the knitted green monstrosity be too great?

Emily Brown and The Thing

In this warm-hearted and witty take on a classic theme - being scared of the dark - Emily and Stanley find a 'Thing' crying outside their window. They embark on a series of adventures to find everything he needs for a good night's sleep . . . but nothing seems to work. What is troubling the Thing, and why can't he get to sleep? Parents and children the world over will recognise all the bizarre excuses a child can make to keep the light on and a parent in the room at bedtime, and this story shows how important it is to talk to children, and find out what is really going on in the complex depths of a child's imagination.

Gorilla

Hannah loves gorillas but has never seen one. Her father's too busy to take her to the zoo - or for anything else come to that. For her birthday, Hannah asks her father for a gorilla - but is disappointed when she discovers that the gorilla she's got is just a toy one. But then something extraordinary happens ...the toy turns into a real gorilla, who puts on her father's hat and coat and takes her off for a magical visit to the zoo...