The Highway Rat

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I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). We have spoken about how the book rhymes, and how it can be read in a rhythmical way. The second time that we read it, the children were able to join in with some of the repetitive sentences, which they all really enjoyed. Absolutely marvelous! As an adult reader I totally adore the clever and delightful textual parody of Alfred Noyes' classic The Highwayman ballad (and indeed also much appreciate that with The Highway Rat, Julia Donaldson has just taken Alfred Noyes' external form and has not made her text content wise into some silly love story and her Highway Rat into a romantic type of hero, as no, that would in my opinion have made The Highway Rat annoyingly maudlin and not the engaging and so very much fun poetic parody of The Highwayman that it is). Write a diary entry from the point of view of the Highway Rat. What does he do each day? How does he feel about it? Look at the use of rhyming words in the story. Can you think of other words which rhyme with the ones used?

Are children puzzled by anything? For example the meaning of words or phrases such as ‘stand and deliver’ or ‘halt’.

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. This time it is story of a predatory, villainous and avaricious rodent and as usual there is a suitable and satisfying denouement – a moral well delivered by the story.

Look at the use of speech marks within the story. Could you use these to turn the story into a play and perform it to others? It seems to serve the development of comprehension skills and other social and emotional aspects of learning quite neatly. The author uses different words to describe how the Highway Rat speaks (e.g. declared, bellowed). Can you think of any more? Imagine that one of the animals in the story is being interviewed by the police. What would they tell the police about their encounter with the Highway Rat?

You get a sense (or at least I did) whilst reading the book that it’s a very ‘active’ story. By that I don’t just mean its plot is full of cause and effect, but also that it lends itself to being acted out. This is a fun story that you can use to celebrate and promote reading. Using some of your class as a chorus, a few children as the lead characters and after having made character masks and props in class, The Highway Rat would make a perfect assembly piece. Julia Donaldson divides her time between Scotland and West Sussex where she lives with her husband. Axel is from Hamburg, and has lived in the UK since 1984. He lives in London with his family but travels extensively. Help your child to dress up as a highway rat use a piece of cloth as a cloak. You could make a mask for your child out of card. For instructions follow link here and scroll to ‘Method 2’ Play the story The artwork is colorful and fun. The rat looks a little like Zorro, but he is a baddie for certain. I love Julia Donaldson’s work. She works with Axel as illustrator and they make an excellent team. Find out about the police and how they help people in society. Could you invite a member of the police force to your school to talk to you about their jobs? What questions would you ask them?