The attention span of the children when I was reading to them was absolutely remarkable: they hung on every word, and each turn of the page was eagerly anticipated. We packed in the reading whenever we could a real highlight quickly because our ‘relaxed reading’ sessions where we cleared the tables away and children used the floor-space to snuggle up with their cushions, blankets and slippers for a cosy read. We numbered our class copies to give an increased sense of ownership: not only did each child have a copy, they also read from the same copy every time. When carrying out novel study, it’s really important that each child has their own copy of the text to follow, and that every word is read out to them. Intrigue, suspense, adventure, heroes, villains and a mechanical fox… what’s not to like?!? Oak Class had already read one of my all-time favourites to novel study – the wonderful ‘Wolf Brother’ by Michelle Paver – so when I read ‘Cogheart’ by Peter Bunzl, I decided that this would be perfect for the class. a book which creates connections beyond the confines of its own cover.a book which offers cross-curricular enrichment opportunities.a book which will take the all stakeholders on a journey.a book you can link to a variety of text types.Judicious selection of the novel to be studied is key and there are a few basic tenets which should be considered.

Whilst children often have access to the broad canon of established children’s literature, I think that it’s vital that we expose them to new and exciting texts: we’re currently seeing a huge expansion in the field of children’s literature in the UK with exciting new titles being published every month from very talented authors. Novel study is a teaching concept that has interested me for quite some time: the basic premise is that you choose a high-quality children’s novel and take the children on a learning journey through it. How did this all come about? Let us share our learning journey with you… We read together, gasped together and even shed the occasional tear together such is the power of Peter Bunzl’s wonderful children’s novel. Our novel study throughout Term 2 took the whole class on an inspiring learning journey.

Cogheart author