Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl

Hi,
I have never read this one before and thought young students might find it interesting so I thought I should know how it goes in the book as it has been made in to a movie.

This is an excellent text for developing independently reading confidence for students in year 5 and 6 as it begins with very short one paragraph per page text with visual text to guide students. The text uses different adjectives to expand the reader’s vocabulary but are not hard the students can easily sound out any challenging words.

Roald Dahl’s writing engages the reader through occasional rhyme

“Boggis and Bounce and Bean

One Fat, one short, one lean.

These horrible crooks

So different in look,

Were nontheless equally mean.”

Dahl also created a rhythm to his writing

“On a hill above the valley there was a wood.

In the wood there was a huge tree.

Under the tree there was a hole.

In the hole lived Mr Fox”.

This is a story about a cunning fox who steals his dinner from three farmers to feed his family. The farmer set out against the fox until one night the fox gets shot and loses his tail.  The farmers then try to dig him out of his home, but Mr Fox digs his way to safety, they try to use caterpillar tractors and it becomes a race to dig for their lives. The farmers try to starve him out, but Mr Fox has a plan, he digs away and comes up in the chicken coop, he takes three of the most ‘plump’ chickens.

He keeps digging and on his travels he meets the badger and his family who tell him that all the animals are starving because of all the hunters waiting in the area. Mr Fox invites the badger to join him and they continue to dig to towards the next farm and find the ducks, but they realise rabbits can only eat vegetables. They take one last crusade toward the last farm and saw the cider, Mr Fox  tasted it, it felt like medicine, so they grab a bottle and take it back to their home. They put on a feast for all the underground animals while the farmers still wait above ground.

Visual texts were used to tell the story such as; “As the machines bit away more and more soil from the hilltop, it looked like this”. This book has been retold and made into a movie, but the novel is a great read for students as it is a very interesting story as you wonder what the fox is going to do next.

Heather

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/books/fant.php