It was her penultimate novel, and I will say at the outset that it is far from her best – but even in the worst von Arnims there is a lot to love, isn’t there? The cover does its best to seem racy, but this is a fairly minor part of the plot – it would have been shocking three decades earlier, but is pretty tame for 1962. Author/artist Oliver Jeffers delivers an absurdly hilarious madcap romp in Stuck, one in which the zany illustrations are more than a match for the narrative hi-jinks. If you’re looking for reportage or dry facts or even a kind, considerate piece about a tragedy – this isn’t the place for you.

Whether or not the catalysing moment for The Double Heart is plausible, I really enjoyed what Cooper did with it. I like how the sun warms the stone and how the stone keeps the heat a little way into the evening, keeps it longer than the air.This activity helps students visually organize the sequence of events and understand how a story can come full circle. I love the way it is so unrealistic and children can question all the silly things Flyod decides to do just to get his kite down. She would like to move to a nicer place – he probably would too, but the flat’s worth nothing – and maybe have a baby, or at least a cat, and is doing well at work. I think what I found most moving in Nocturne is the portrait of how you can know someone deeply and still not know everything about them. While I really liked Jeffers' book "The Incredible Book Eating Boy," I didn't care for this book as much.

Since she is able to devote so much space to the trial, it feels like we are in the courtroom with her. Perhaps every generation thinks that the previous generation had more stability – and every generation thinks that theirs is more liberal in marriage.She moves her stash every day, fearful that it be unearthed and her whole scheme tumble to the ground.

Activity: To help students appreciate this, you could organize a ‘Caption Contest' where students come up with funny captions for selected illustrations from the book.

This post delves into Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, which provides an excellent platform for enhancing literacy skills in students. He doesn’t particularly like the communal way of eating, or having other people’s children everywhere. Strangely the day after reading I picked up the Guardian and there was an article by Jeffers about the debt he owes to Maurice Sendak (that's why the boy in his first picture books has a stripey jumper, an homage to his favourite monster in Where the Wild Things Are) and also how his books are not children's books, but simply picture books.