I love Dick King-Smith‘s work. There was a time when I read nothing except his books. I devoured story after story, the way children do when they get hooked on to an author. I remember just one book I didn’t enjoy – Godhanger. But everything else? I loved.
And that’s why we’re rereading The Hodgeheg, one of my favourites! It’s a sweet story about one determined hedgehog who makes it his mission to find out how to cross a road safely. How do humans cross? Can’t a hedgehog do the same? Here’s what we’ll do with this book at my book club.
Slang
The Hodgeheg begins with another hedgehog having ‘copped it’. Later on, we have the phrase ‘that’s flat’.
What do these phrases mean? The way in which words and phrases develop regional variations is fascinating. I remember reading the phrase ‘I bet a monkey’ while I was reading Georgette Heyer. I first thought Heyer was just being funny. I looked it up and discovered that a monkey is British slang for five hundred pounds, American slang for five hundred dollars, and Australian slang for – wait for it – a sheep!
We’ll look at a few funny phrases from different parts of the world; I can’t wait to see what we’ll discover!
Unscramble
When the hedgehog Max is hit on the head, his words come out all scrambled, which is what gives the book its name.
Of course, this leads to a simple, fun activity – unscrambling letters to make words, putting words in the right order to create sentences, and putting lines in the right order to create a poem.
Creating Characters
The first thing that sets Max apart is his name. But there’s more to Max than a unique name. What makes a character leap out of the pages?
As my reading programme for ages nine and ten has a strong creative writing component, we will use the text to work on creating memorable characters. If you have a character that your readers will root for, your story is already half done!
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