Burglar Bill

Product Information

Burglar Bill steals anything and everything he can get his hands on, from tooth brushes to tins of beans. But when he steals an apparently empty box he gets much more than he bargained for… All you need for this easy World Book Day costume is a jumper and trousers and then a homemade Horrid Henry mask. The Boyhood of Burglar Bill by Allan Ahlberg was published in 2007. It is a middle-grade novel principally about football and friendship set in a Midland town in 1953. [2] It is an autobiographical story rather than a true prequel to the picture book. Imagine you are Bill wanting to say sorry and describe the good things you are going to start doing.

I loved this as a kid and found it again recently. The story itself is gleefully subversive in depicting a life of crime and redemption without consequence. Taking it too seriously is probably not the point. There’s nothing in the story about what he does with all these things. He steals what catches his fancy, without an eye to the second-hand retail market. We assume he fills his house with his stolen things and doesn’t need to earn cash. (The pictures of Bill’s home suggest a bit of stolen clutter.) Disney characters can have some simple and easy-to-copy outfits, and most of them are based on books.

Find a Scheme of Work

Burglar Bill is a typical working bachelor but for one thing: He works on the wrong side of the law. The storytellers flip only this part of him, and echo the mirroring in the setting: Burglar Bill works overnight rather than during the day. Get the face paints out. Book characters can easily come to life with cute painted faces. Think The Tiger Who Came to Tea or the Cheshire Cat.

Think about sleepwear - Pyjamas and nighties can work for all sorts of costumes, like The Darlings from Peter Pan or Sophie from The BFG. Tina Williams is the Artistic Director of Pied Piper Theatre Company, which she set up in 1984 having trained as both an actor and a teacher. Tina has written, adapted, directed and produced over twenty five plays for the company including a large scale national tour of Anne Fine's "The Book of the Banshee", a community tour of "A Little Princess" involving eight actors and eight young people and her recent new plays "The Big ENORMOUS Present" and "Robin's Winter Adventure".Story Books Story Titles A-D Burglar Bill - Allan Ahlberg Burglar Bill - Allan Ahlberg Primary Resources Bill makes a living by breaking into houses at night. He treats this like a day job and therefore steals many things successfully. Many law-abiding and vital shift workers also work at night, but there is a long-established trope that bad things happen at night, and bad people operate under the cover of darkness. Tina Williams is the Artistic Director of Pied Piper Theatre Company, which she set up in 1984 having trained as both an actor and a teacher.

When Bill learns he’s accidentally stolen a baby he doesn’t think to find its parents. ‘Clearly’ this baby was left on a doorstep because whoever gave birth to it doesn’t want it. At this point I’m reminded of how easily children acquire pets in stories. This has changed in recent children’s fiction. In the 1970s, preceding microchipping, children in stories would often find a pet and just keep it. Authors don’t do that now. There’s almost always at least some effort expended in trying to find a pet’s owner. THE BIG STRUGGLE So when we spotted it in the library last week, I think I may have did a little jig of delight. We read it last night, and the kid loved it so much that he insisted we read it again first thing this morning. I don't remember Burglar Bill being a Londoner when I read it as a kid, but I found myself doing a dodgy Ray Winstone impersonation here. Not that he's typecast.

Funny book to read aloud to children; would be great to read in connection with the Naughty, Naughty Baddies :-) Burglar Bill lives all by himself in a tall house full of stolen property. Every night (after eating his stolen fish and chips) he goes out to work... stealing things. From hats to baked beans, Burglar Bill will take anything! A simple cotton dress and a cardie along with a pile of books and your child is transformed into Roald Dahl's Matilda. Authors can’t get away with that kind of language (or baby) in a picture book but when the baby starts talking to Bill, readers are delighted. It is wonderful to find out the baby has agency.