This great picture book, written by Michelle Robinson and illustrated by Jim Field, has lots of potential and could be linked to a persuasive unit of work or a block of learning focusing on letter writing. It is about a little boy called Dan and his brother, who are desperate to save up their coupons from their cornflakes to win their very own lion! There is a lovely madness to the text and the bold illustrations are really engaging too! It has a gentle humour and could be used in many different year groups.
There is a great clip to watch on vimeo (http://vimeo.com/99553606) that shows the advert for the cornflakes and their wonderful free offer! This could be used to introduce the book and inspire the pupils to create their own advert.
The two brothers are so desperate to have their own lion that they buy boxes an boxes of cornflakes and have to eat them all day, every day. Pupils could create ridiculous menus to show all the different combinations that the boys have to endure to get their prize. Soon everyone else in the book have their own lion and there is a fantastic double page spread showing all the lions that have been delivered. However our heroes haven’t received theirs yet!
When his lion doesn’t arrive there is a flurry of letters and different animals being sent because there are no lions left in stock!
I am always looking for texts that have different text types within them as they can be great models for inspiring the pupils. I haven’t really explored all the many writing opportunities yet, as this is a recently published book, but I think it could be used for all aspects of advertising, letter writing, dialogue work, diary writing and writing in role as the different animals that are sent.
It could also link really well with David Walliam’s picture book ‘The slightly annoying elephant’ which is all about the hilarious consequences of sponsoring an elephant.
