You won't have to go to Infinity or beyond to make your kid a great Buzz Lightyear costume this World Book Day, you just need this easy-to-follow guide! Top tips for making World Book Day costumes A new week and a new book. We are now reading Burglar Bill, a classic - just like me (if classic means old!!!) Burglar Bill lives all by himself in a tall house full of stolen property. Every night (after eating his stolen fish and chips) he goes out to work... stealing things. From hats to baked beans, Burglar Bill will take anything! When the Baby talks, I’m reminded of “The Child” a short story by Ali Smith, in which a woman finds a baby in her shopping trolley, takes it home and soon realises the baby has a foul mouth on it. Roman is a qualified PTLLS teacher and has been coaching students in acting, and teaching/directing students at drama colleges in England (The Academy of Live and Recorded Art, East 15, Drama Studio London) as well as giving various master classes in puppetry /design for puppetry (Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Little Angle Theatre). He is a puppetry consultant for various theatre companies as well as Pied Piper, (Watershed productions, Birmingham Stage Co, Mid Wales Opera, Pied Piper Productions, Thousand Cranes Co, All Aboard Productions, Polka Theatre - guest directors)

Start with a stripey jumper. It can be the start of many an easy costume including Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Where's Wally, or Horrid Henry. Tina Williams is the Artistic Director of Pied Piper Theatre Company, which she set up in 1984 having trained as both an actor and a teacher. Tina has written, adapted, directed and produced over twenty five plays for the company including a large scale national tour of Anne Fine's "The Book of the Banshee", a community tour of "A Little Princess" involving eight actors and eight young people and her recent new plays "The Big ENORMOUS Present" and "Robin's Winter Adventure". Having directed a very successful production of Lauren Child's characters Charlie and Lola in "Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play" for Polka Theatre, Roman is now BBC Worldwide exclusive director for this play which is now touring Britain as well as having played in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia including the Sydney Opera House. In Sao Paulo, it was performed in Portuguese and also played in Rio de Janeiro before touring major cities in Brazil. Looking for more inspo? Why not try these favourite books for young kids, or swap ideas in our Forum: Related articles Home Office in the media is the Home Office's blog on the latest topical home affairs issues. It features a review of leading media stories, responses to breaking news, rebuttal to inaccurate reports, and ministerial comment.

These actions often take place in the shadows, but the harm is very real. We must be able to deter, detect and disrupt those state actors who seek to harm the UK by covertly targeting our national interests, sensitive information, trade secrets and democratic way of life. Bill and Betty exchange pleasantries and after a short while Bill describes his unusual find the other evening. He introduces the baby to Betty however Betty is already fully acquainted with the baby because the baby is actually hers! Think what we would use nowadays in place of these things, you could photograph them or draw them and label them. When Bill learns he’s accidentally stolen a baby he doesn’t think to find its parents. ‘Clearly’ this baby was left on a doorstep because whoever gave birth to it doesn’t want it. At this point I’m reminded of how easily children acquire pets in stories. This has changed in recent children’s fiction. In the 1970s, preceding microchipping, children in stories would often find a pet and just keep it. Authors don’t do that now. There’s almost always at least some effort expended in trying to find a pet’s owner. THE BIG STRUGGLE The Boyhood of Burglar Bill by Allan Ahlberg was published in 2007. It is a middle-grade novel principally about football and friendship set in a Midland town in 1953. [2] It is an autobiographical story rather than a true prequel to the picture book.

By coincidence, Betty is Baby’s mother. This is the sort of coincidence that only works in comedic picture books, but it also works because we can assume that in this cosy little world Bill and Betty are the only two burglars in town, and that fate has pulled them together. Who's that creeping down the street? Who's that climbing up the wall? Who's that coming through the window? Who's that? ... It's Burglar Bill!

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If you want to attempt an easier version, cut a tree shape out of a large piece of card and paint it brown for your child to carry. Julian is an associate artist of Pied Piper Theatre Company. As well as music for Pied Piper he has composed music for lots of theatre shows for children and young people, includingCharlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play,Charlie and Lola's Extremely New PlayandGorilla(Polka Theatre, directed by Roman Stefanski),Up and Down(GaGa Theatre Company),The Paper Washi WishandLittle Sunshine,Little Rainfall(A Thousand Cranes Theatre), andA Christmas Carol(Lakeside Arts, Nottingham). He has written several musicals for young people includingBeauty and the Beast,Red Riding HoodandFlat Stanley(with Mike Kenny, Engine House Theatre) andRun! A Sports Day Musical(with Lisa Evans, Polka Theatre). As an alternative, ask the person who collected the objects to ‘steal’ one of them. Which one did they steal?

So not surprisingly Janet Ahlberg’s detailed illustrations show Burglar Bill living in what we might think of as an old-fashioned home. The story is simple but delightful and the dialogue is spot on - especially for parents who like to do voices when they read aloud. In our version Bill and Betty are a pair from the East End and my boys adore them. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to repeat “I’m a widow lady” in a squeaky falsetto and I’ve loved hearing their giggles over the years. My 8 year old still insists I read it to him at least once a month and I love the fact that if my 19 year old is around when we are reading, he will linger long enough to hear the end. The eponymous Burglar Bill lives a solitary life of crime in this picture-book from Janet and Allan Ahlberg, robbing homes at night and returning to his own domicile - entirely kitted out with ill-gotten goods - to sleep during the day. Then one night he discovers a cardboard box at one of the homes he is burgling, and thinking it might come in handy, brings it home with him. Imagine his surprise when it contains a baby! Now Burglar Bill has an entirely new occupation: child minder. Soon he also has a lady love, in the form of Burglar Betty, leading to some surprising changes in all of their lives... The grammar of the dialogue is that of the working class, though perhaps someone can pinpoint the area. I’m guessing somewhere in the Midlands, but only because that’s where Allan grew up, and where he set his memoir, which he called The Boyhood of Burglar Bill. STORY STRUCTURE OF BURGLAR BILL PARATEXT Ebony Feare is a deliciously charismatic tortoise, languorous with an impressive range of reptilian faces and stances and a resonant singing voice. Stefan Stuart’s ever impatient hare, more boyish than leporine, makes for an appropriately lively contrast despite his weaker singing voice.

Children can tell the story as Bill, with a torch, a swag-bag over their shoulders and a cardboard box with a toy baby inside. Watch the story If you're after more book-smart ideas on how to make easy World Book Day costumes, we've got you covered! Here are just some of our vital tips for making easy and affordable costumes for World Book Day: So when we spotted it in the library last week, I think I may have did a little jig of delight. We read it last night, and the kid loved it so much that he insisted we read it again first thing this morning. I don't remember Burglar Bill being a Londoner when I read it as a kid, but I found myself doing a dodgy Ray Winstone impersonation here. Not that he's typecast.