Cops and Robbers

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Look at the robbers’ Christmas Eve timetable. How long will each of their activities take? Can you make a timetable of the things that you might do on Christmas Eve? Okay I'm going to open with an apology again. This book was recommended by a friend, a friend who obviously liked it, very much. I just could not like it, get into it or enjoy the subject matter. For me...that's for me, it barely escapes a 1 star rating. Sorry. The edition I read has this terrible front cover that makes the book out to be a farce rather than a “comic mystery” of its day. Shame that anyone judging a book by its cover would most likely miss this gem. A ballad about a gang of robbers with a Christmas heist in the works, and the brave Officer Pugh who saves the day. Donald Westlake was a national treasure. He wrote more than one hundred novels and I doubt if there is a dud among them. This one is a stand-alone and while not funny, I suspect you'll have a grin on your face at the end, as did I.

Think of questions that could be used in an interview with a police officer. Could you invite one to your school? Look at the police officers’ street map and plan routes from one street to another. What roads do you need to use to get from one place to another? Which direction will you need to turn? This is a fabulous favourite – and a brilliantly clever theme for Christmas too, I never would have thought of it. The London cops are described as being ‘hardworking, brave and true’. Think of other words that describe the qualities of a good police officer.Allan Ahlberg is one of the UK's most acclaimed and successful authors of children's books - including the best-selling Jolly Postman series. Born in Croydon in 1938, he was educated at Sunderland Technical College. Although he dreamed of becoming a writer since the age of twelve, his route to that goal was somewhat circuitous. Other jobs along the way included postman (not an especially jolly one, he recalls), gravedigger, plumber, and teacher. A new nailbiter from the bestselling author of Two Wolves, The Fall and Detention. "Make sure you start this well before bedtime because you wont want to stop." Morris Gleitzman

Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-10-28 20:57:19 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA145520 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Edition 1st American ed. External-identifier Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments Choose one of the robbers shown in the book (e.g. Grabber Dan, Grandma Swagg) and write a story about a crime they might have committed. This is a new Puffin edition of Allan Ahlberg's best-selling Cops and Robbers classic picture book, with a brand new cover! The robbers of London town plan a desperate crime one Christmas Eve - to steal all the toys they can lay their hands on! Fortunately, the robbers meet their match in brave office Pugh who leaps into action and arrests the villains - all except Grandma Swagg who manages to get away.

Then i read it was written written expressly to be made into a movie and understood why it didnt have the usual Donald E.Westlake quality to it. Draw a plan view of each floor in the police station based on the illustration in the book. What rooms are in the building?

Gripping and unpredictable, with a hero you won't forget.' John Boyne, author of The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas This book was a hand-me-down from an older cousin and became an instant hit. Written in verse with the refrain "Ho Ho for the robbers/The cops and the robbers Ho Ho!" which is too catchy and my son used to sing out as loudly as possible. Joe and Tom cross the line, but I still found myself rooting for them. Perhaps that's wrong, but who among us hasn't occasionally rooted for the rebel and the outlaw. Besides Westlake is very careful. There is very little violence and our two protagonists don't ever hurt anybody. The two victims are a very wealthy brokerage firm which lies about how much is stolen and the Mob. Not actually sympathetic organizations and that's important in stories like this if the reader is to root for the crooks.The book, the story, and the characters are all quite believable for the early 1970s. This wouldn’t (and couldn’t) have worked today. But that’s what’s so great: it’s a point in time when the genius of it all was entirely possible. Long before Steven Paige and Ed Robertson mused about what they would do if they had a million dollars, Tom and Joe decided it was a game worth playing; a risk worth taking. The robbers ‘take? whatever they please’. Why is this wrong? How does it make people feel? What can we do to prevent others taking our things?