But when Perilus's hero, the brilliant charioteer Scorcha , goes missing on the day of the big race, Perilus finds his wish coming true sooner than he'd imagined! A laugh-out-loud story from King of Comedy Jeremy Strong. About This Edition ISBN: Do you look at all possible unknown words prior to reading a chapter or are some saved for word meaning/inference tasks in the second lesson? This book is about a Roman family who is thought to have stolen money from the Imperial Mint. Croakbag, the raven tries to figure out who stole the money and why they do it. He can’t just ask everyone in Rome, “Have you stolen any money from the imperial mint?”! I love this book because it makes you laugh and at the same time makes you wonder what is going to happen next. My favourite bit is when Maddasbanaus uses his fire engine to save the house because now, we use them so often but he would have invented and used one first.

The book is about a bird called Croakbag and he is telling you a story about a boy called Perilus and Scorcha who go charioting. We have written a series of questions, using chapter 6 your class will have to derive their answers. Thank you for your comments, the Penguin version is a good starting point for the book. It's a shame that you didn't find the 24 other reading activities that I include in the resource as useful as the other reviewers have done. Hide replies The emperor had announced the biggest chariot racing competition in the whole world but Perilus’ mum and dad are in jail and he has to get them out. Although I liked the book, it didn't make me want to read more by the same author as the actual chariot race was a disappointment. I thought there would be more about chariot races. The race was fun and full of excitement but short! It had funny parts where they saw an elephant.

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The family live across the street from a house where lots of poor Romans live together, because they cannot afford their own houses. Including two ex-slaves: Maddusbananus, who wants to be a millionaire from selling his inventions and Scorcha who shares Perilus’ ambition to become a charioteer. Perilus often sneaks out to the house across the road to practice chariot racing with Scorcha and some borrowed goats. Many disasters happen to the friends until one day Perilus is called upon to save the day while Scorcha is in jail. Hi Jo, I really want to start this approach in my school (we have huge classes, so carousel is impossible!) - I don't suppose you have any Year 3 samples of planning and children's work to look at? This book was specifically related to history because of all the events which happened when the Romans arrived, happened in this book. For example, the book explained about chariot racing, how the machines we use now were made and how different our lives are from when the Romans lived. This book did make me want to learn more about this period of history because of the chariot racing. This sport interest me a lot and after you read the book I bet you will be interested too! John: I didn’t like the book because it was difficult to follow the story line and I found it rather dull. I was surprised not to enjoy it as I had read other books by Jeremy Strong before – like “The Hundred Mile and Hour Dog” which I really enjoyed.

When he was about eighteen he started writing very serious stories for adults, but none of them were published. By the time he was twenty-one he was writing stories for children after realizing that he loved writing funny stories and making people laugh. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives.The storm had uncovered some amazing Roman artefacts and we couldn’t wait to start finding out more about them!

Ella: I really enjoyed this book, because it was funny and it was told by a Raven who is best friends with perilus. My favourite character is perilus as he is kind but also does mad things and always gets himself into funny situations. Perilus was very kind because when Scorcha was sent to jail he couldn’t race for the green team.Perilus pretended to be Scorcha and raced his charriot, Perilous also got to race which is what always wanted to do. I think that the book is realistic because it was about the Romans and they liked to charriot race and also kept slaves to do things for them. I did enjoy the story but I found it hard to read some of the words and I would recommond this book for children over 10 year olds. I enjoyed this book because it is very funny and is written from the perspective of the talking crow Smartimus Maximussus. The crow teaches you about the Romans’ family life, and even a little bit of Latin. Most importantly this book is very entertaining and could be an easy read for ages. I would recommend this book to anyone aged 7 to 11 and would rate it 8 out of 10.

To begin with I thought the book was excellent and I couldn’t wait to read more of Jeremy Strong’s books. I really like the fact there is a funny side to the telling of the story as it is told through the eyes of a raven called Croakbag. This looks great. Do you have a list of the books you have used throughout the year for KS2 under the new system? Thanks for sharing this link, it's a good starting point for the book. It's a shame that you didn't find the 24 other reading activities that I include in the resource as useful as the other reviewers have done. Hide replies I really loved this book a lot. My favourite bit is when the trumpets go BLA bla-BLAAAA!! Is it realistic Daniel: This book is set in ancient Rome. It is narrated by a talking Raven called Corvus, who thinks he is very clever and funny. He is the pet of the main character Perilus, who is the son of the head of the Roman Imperial mint. Perilus’ family are very wealthy; he lives with his dad, mum and sister in a large villa and the family have two slaves. Perilus wants to be a charioteer, much to his father’s disgust because he wants him to head of the Imperial mint like him one day. Perilus is only 11 and likes to get up to mischief which is probably why he wants to be a charioteer, one of the most dangerous jobs in the Roman economy.

He loves to practise in his own homemade chariot (pulled by the family goat) and dreams of riding in the Circus Maximus himself one day. I chose this book because it’s funny and I’ve learnt some Latin. There’s a raven called croakbag and my favourite part is where the raven tells jokes. Practice - teachers use various methods to revise the words previously learned: matching words definitions, providing definitions, images, missing letters, sentences from books with the word missing. There are two mysteries to solve in this book. Who stole the money from the Imperial Mint? Who had tried to kidnap a chariot racer so he couldn’t win? All will be revealed after you read the book…I am interested in Roman times. I like learning about Gladiators and the towns Romans lived in but I think the book didn’t inspire me even more. To find out about history I prefer more factual books. This book is extraordinary because it is funny and it makes you see what is happening in your mind. There is lots of fun and adventures to be had. I loved it. My favourite part was when they first stared to break out of prison because every one gets scared of the ginormous elephant when it distracts everyone with its huge sneeze. The history contained in the book was quite poor. It described a Roman family in modern times so it didn’t show what Roman times were like. The author tried to add humour but I didn’t find the jokes very funny. The book may suit younger readers more (age 6-7 maybe).