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Buckle and Squash and the Monstrous Moat Dragon

buckle and squashSarah Courtauld (writer and illustrator)
Macmillan

Age 7-9

Lavender and Eliza live a boring life in the ‘Middle of Nowhere’. Both sisters dream of escape; Lavender by meeting a fairy tale prince and living happily ever after, Eliza of fighting monsters and dragons. When Lavender sets off in search of her prince a worried Eliza follows her. An adventure unfolds, but not quite what they bargained for when they are captured by evil Prince Mordmont. They need to pool their knowledge to find a way to escape.

This is a book full of humour in the word play, illustrations and occasional asides to the reader. There is a memorable cast of highly unusual and amusing characters including Bonnet the smallest giant in the kingdom and Violet the moat dragon.

 

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Talk about the story

Talk together about your favourite characters and what you each like about them. Which characters were brave, which were weak and which were scary?

Which scenes did you both find funniest? Go back to them and perhaps read them again together.

What would you tell someone else about this story?


Things to make and do

Children could make a who’s who of the characters with annotated pictures on a big chart or in a mini folded book

Draw a map of the story on a large sheet of paper with all the places mentioned included. Looking back at the map in chapter two together and talking about this with your child as they are doing this would help. Eliza and Lavender’s journey could be included on the map too.

Children could make a set of instructions for how to fake the Black Death to escape kidnap by evil princes.

Watch the video and find out from the author how to draw a dragon

Macmillan Children’s Books

Find out more

Read more books by Sarah Courtauld:

Buckle and Squash and the land of the Giants

Buckle and Squash: the perilous princess plot

 Find out more about the author, the story and how to draw a dragon here. Some free downloads are also available on this site including a template to design your own quirky prince.


Buy Buckle and Squash and the Monstrous Moat Dragon