The Highway Rat

Product Information

The use of adjectives in the story is a key element from year 2 level as they are beginning to extend their vocabulary in descriptive words and verbs, words such as galloped. We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC. An animated family film based on the much-loved children's book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

It seems to serve the development of comprehension skills and other social and emotional aspects of learning quite neatly. Children, who have so little autonomy in their own life, will relate with the woodland animals who are bullied by the larger, meaner rodent. I recently worked in a school where this book formed part of a whole week of Highway Rat themed activities and the children truly loved it. The story is ripe with drama and excitement and these features are enhanced by detailed illustrations. He worked mainly in the commercial industry, with clients including Kinder Bueno, Rennie, Steradent, Jeyes Bloo loo and Persil.TV credits include The Turn Of The Screw (starring Colin Firth); John Madden’s Meat and John Schlesinger’s Bafta award-winning film of Alan Bennett’s A Question Of Attribution. They maybe unsure what a highway is and this may be a good point to talk about highwaymen – or you could do so later after enjoying the story together. I still wouldn't trust him, but as my son pointed out, the last page shows the rat being dwarfed by the other inhabitants of the village, so he's no longer the big bad guy with a horse and sword, but rather looks smaller than the village children as he crouches on the floor, gnawing on a cookie that he's swept up.

We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes. 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. A glorious animated swashbuckler, The Highway Rat is based on the richly imaginative book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the UK’s bestselling picture book team.They had to use a lot of similes, adjectives and body language to create tension and a chase to grab their reader’s attention.

His googly-eyed horse is a pleasure, almost always making eye-contact with the reader and sharing the joke of this evil rat riding on his back.million viewers, with an overall 41% audience share, making it the fourth highest rated programme of the day.