Taking Armitage with them, Zoe and her father escape in Burt's van. Her father subsequently converts the vehicle into an ice cream van and launches his own company, Armitage's Ices, so that he can pursue his dream of making and selling ice cream with new flavours that he has invented. These prove popular with the local schoolchildren and the business is a success. Meanwhile, Zoe has discovered that Tina is being bullied by her father. Tina apologises to Zoe for bullying her in return, and the two become friends. The next day, Zoe's suspension is lifted and she and Armitage perform at the school talent show with Tina. Before reading the book, look at the characters shown at the beginning. What might each character be like? How might they be involved in the story?

Ratburger by David Walliams (9780007453542/Paperback Ratburger by David Walliams (9780007453542/Paperback

After the climactic scene, the book reversed and dragged on and on into an anticlimax. A chore to read. The writing and plot were so dull, this book has earned a space on my chewing gum for the brain shelf. This book has the cleverest literary ending of perhaps any book I've ever read. It hasn't got anything to do with the story either. In all Walliams other books and films there is a corner shop owner, Raj, who supplies the schoolchildren with sweets and sympathy although his business methods are somewhat dubious and definitely not hygenic. In the last chapter he complains that he isn't in the book. Quite audaciously he goes on that his legion of fans will not stand for this. Through the extremely funny and brilliant writing, he becomes not just a figure from Walliams' other books, but a real person who has written the afterword. Added to all this, David’s books have achieved unprecedented critical acclaim: Awful Auntie, Ratburger and Demon Dentist won the National Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year and in France David was awarded the popular Tamtam for Mr Stink and the prestigious Le Prix Du Livre De La Jeunesse for Ratburger, so it comes as no surprise that countless broadsheet reviewers have compared David to his all-time hero, Roald Dahl. A couple of years prior, Zoe's father bought Zoe a hamster as a birthday present, and she named it Gingernut. The hamster dies in suspicious circumstances, and Zoe suspects that Sheila is responsible. Shortly afterward, Zoe finds a rat that has sneaked into her room, and discovers that it is intelligent and can dance to music. Zoe names the rat Armitage (after the name of a plumbing company which she finds on a toilet bowl), but he is seen by her headmaster and her history teacher Miss Midge, who insists that Zoe should be suspended.I would recommend this book as one for whole class reading and then it could be used to introduce a number of activities in different subject areas. I would particularly favour:

RatBurger by David Walliams | Goodreads RatBurger by David Walliams | Goodreads

In Chapter 10, there is a chart showing the height of different people / creatures. Can you carry out a survey to find the height of children in your class and use these to create charts and graphs? His most recent fiction title, The World’s Worst Children, published on 19th May 2016 sold over 340,000 copies in the UK alone. It went straight to No. 1 on release where it stayed for 4 weeks and also concurred Children’s Books charts, where it stayed at No.1 for 7 weeks. Internationally sales continue to thrive, The World’s Worst Children also went straight to No. 1 in the Australian children’s chart and remained there for three consecutive weeks and reached the No. 1 in the overall book chart in New Zealand. Mr Stink, Gangsta Granny, The Boy in the Dress and Billionaire Boy have all been adapted into TV comedy dramas. David’s books have also been made into theatre productions including Mr Stink, Gangsta Granny, Ratburger and The First Hippo on the Moon. The references to Lady Gaga, Piers Morgan and a ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ obsession with finding fame make this classic tale of good triumphing over bad and the underdog winning in the end, both modern and relevant. It is written in an engaging, humorous way that will have children gripped from start to finish. As well as being a No.1 best-selling Children’s author, David Walliams is one of Britain's most popular writers and comic actors.This is a humourously descriptive book which I believe would be of interest to the seven to nine age-group.It has ongoing humourous footnotes which is a concept children need to become aware of for their future educational life. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-07-03 05:02:48 Associated-names Ross, Tony Boxid IA1829713 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Make a persuasive poster to advertise some of the wonderful flavours of ice cream that are mentioned in Chapter Two. This book would be good for independent readers or as a teaching-tool for examining themes such as loneliness, isolation or issues such as bullying. As a brand, The World of David Walliams continues to grow: export sales have increased by 77% year on year with growth in every single market and David’s books are published in over 49 languages.

Ratburger - The World of David Walliams

However, this wouldn't be a David Walliams book without a bit of trepidation, an unfortunate incident and a dastardly villain and our poor heroine happens to come across a very nasty individual who has grand plans for Armitage. Zoe then ends up in a very precarious situation where she must rescue her pet rat from a dangerous and hugely gruesome ending at the hands of a very odd man who makes very "special" burgers for a living. This is heavily influenced by Dahl, which is no bad thing. As a child I would have adored this and as an adult it kept me smiling throughout. David has proved himself as a dramatic actor in BBC2's 'Capturing Mary' with Dame Maggie Smith, in BBC1's Agatha Christie series 'Partners In Crime', as Frankie Howerd in the biopic ‘Rather You Than Me’ for BBC4, and on the stage in Harold Pinter’s 'No Man’s Land' starring alongside Sir Michael Gambon. He received the Comedy Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his performance as Bottom in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ directed by Michael Grandage. I imagine this book will be perfect for helping to foster a love of reading in 9 years olds and in fact Year 4, 5 and 6 children. I am sure that reluctant readers will find themselves engrossed in this story and for teachers, it makes a great platform for discussions on characters, settings, plots and predictions. I can imagine developing some interesting creative writing lessons around writing the story from the perspective of one of the other characters, or even a diary extract for Zoe or a different end to the tale. It could inspire children to write about their own dreams and ambitions as well prompt creativity with a task on writing a menu or drawing a poster for Armitage’s Ices. The subject of bullying in the book could make a great resource for this PSHE topic and I am sure an additional benefit of the novel is getting children to think about where their food, and especially fast food comes from and more importantly what’s in it!

Tina Trotts

As well as his Children’s fiction, David has also published four number one bestselling picture books, his latest, The Bear Who went Boo! was published in November 2015 and has had total sales of over 85,000 to date. The Queen’s Orang-utan, David’s third picture book was written exclusively for Comic Relief with David giving all of his proceeds from the book to the charity. Read the lists of ‘Loved’ and ‘Unloved’ things in Chapter 6. Can you think of other things to add to these lists? Write a story about Zoe’s dream of travelling the world with a menagerie of animal stars. Could you use alliteration to make up new animal acts, e.g. Trampolining Tortoises, Painting Penguins? This is about a little ginger girl with braces called Zoe who has a pretty awful life. Her hamster dies and things seem even worse until she finds Armitage, a rat. She loves this rat but no one else does and things start to go horribly wrong. Zoe is the hero that you fall in love with and the villains are great pantomime characters. The illustrations are good and add to the story. Little Britain’, which he co-created with Matt Lucas, started on Radio 4 and soon progressed to BBC1. The show has won numerous international awards including three BAFTAs, and now plays in over 100 countries. ‘Little Britain Live’ performed to a million people in the UK, Ireland and Australia. David and Matt followed ‘Little Britain’ with the hugely popular spoof airport documentary series 'Come Fly With Me'.

Ratburger - David Walliams - Google Books

It is when she finds a cute baby rat in her bedroom and strives to keep him safe from her stepmother and Burt the evil burger van driver, that we are taken on a hilarious, touching and sometimes gruesome adventure.

Zoe

Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - This follows on from the success of Grandpa’s Great Escape, Awful Auntie, Demon Dentist, Ratburger and Gangsta Granny. All went straight to Children’s number one on release with Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy selling over a million copies to date. The story follows a young girl named Zoe, whose mother died when she was a baby. Zoe now lives in a council flat with her father and her lazy stepmother, Sheila. Zoe is being bullied by a classmate named Tina Trotts and is looked down upon by a teacher, Miss Midge. She is also suspicious of Burt, who sells burgers to schoolchildren from his van.