Plot

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Bobby Burns is worried. His best friends don’t attend his new school.  His Dad is ill and the threat of nuclear war and the beginning of World War III hangs over everyone. New neighbours see his home town through southern eyes, and strangest of all is McNulty, a fire-eater and escapologist.

Author – David Almond

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David Almond’s website

David Almond’s Twitter account

Authors Live – BBC (with an audience from OLHS!)

Discover more about David Almond and his work in the Library catalogue in school  OR   at home

Themes – universal ideas

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Darkness and light, discrimination, faith, fear, home, pain.

More to explore – motifs, symbols, context, setting

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11+ exam, 1960s, angels, Burma Campaign, CND, Cold War, corporal punishment, Cuban Missile Crisis, education, escapology, folk songs, illness, jazz music, mental health, miracles, music, Newcastle, Northumberland, nuclear war, PTSD, photography, prisoners of war, protests, sea coal, war.

Language and Literature

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Symbols – lighthouse

Title

Did you know?

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Sea coal?

Felling

Further reading

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Discover these titles and more through the Library catalogue in school  OR  at home

Set in Northumberland / David Almond

Kit’s Wilderness

Realism

Miracles

New people

1960s

Protesting

School – Chocolate War

Numeracy

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Tanners?

Health and Wellbeing

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Worries and stress

Rights Respecting Schools

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Corporal punishment

Developing the Young Workforce

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