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It Was a Cold Dark Night: Band 03/Yellow (Collins Big Cat)
£5.00
Ned the hedgehog is looking for a home in the cold, dark forest. He needs somewhere warm and cosy to sleep, but all he keeps finding are other creatures’ homes: rabbits’, foxes’, owls’, bats’. Will he ever find a snug safe bed of his own? This beautiful book is written and illustrated by award-winning author and illustrator Tim Hopgood.
- Yellow/Band 3 books offer varied sentence structure and natural language
- Text type: A story with predictable structure and patterned language.
- A map of the forest on pages 14-15 shows Ned’s journey and all the animals he encounters along the way.
- Curriculum links: Knowledge and understanding of the World
- This book has been quizzed for Accelerated Reader.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Collins, Illustrated edition (5 Jan. 2010) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 16 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0007329229 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0007329229 |
| Reading age | 4 – 6 years |
| Dimensions | 26.5 x 0.25 x 19.2 cm |
by Hannah H
I read this story to a group of 2 year olds. I thought the story wasnt interesting enough for them but the loved it. They were eager to know about all the animals and about Ned. The map allowed me to review the story with the children and ask them who he met and what they said. I was pleasantly surprised with how much they loved such a simple story
by Emily Millington
Lovely story. Very quick to read but great for preschoolers. Encourages lots of conversation.
The book is quite flimsy.
by Mrs. J. Roberts
A large book is useful for reading to a whole class. The story itself is very simple, but suitable for first year second language primary pupils. It is easy to understand, and with little vocabulary to learn. There are pictures of the moon, trees, stars, ground, and leaves for the pupils to point out as well as the animals . I found a stencil of a hedgehog to print – I cannot draw to save my life ! – and the pupils stuck in silk leaves around the picture onto A4 as a follow up. The age group and difficulty level would not be appropriate for pupils whose first language is German.
by Hannah H
My daughter isn’t quite at the reading stage yet, she’s almost 4, and so this book is very very short when I’m reading it. It will be fantastic when she’s learning to read, it is sweet and the illustrations are lovely, but just beware if you’re buying to read to your young children they may be disappointed by the length.
by Louise
I am a childminder & I purchased this book for an autumn topic to share with the 2-4yr old children I care for. The story is a very simple & short story with what I think has good illustrations along with it. The quality of the cover & pages are not of adequate quality to go on our book display for children to look at daily. The book arrived in a cardboard envelope but the book was curled round when removed from the envelope. Shame, as I like children to handle & enjoy books independently as well as sharing them with me. Sadly the flimsy quality of the cover & pages lets the book down for me.
by CobWeb
‘It Was a Cold Dark Night’, by Tim Hopgood for the ‘Collins Big Cat’ colour-coded reading programme.
In keeping with the reading scheme at this level, the book includes ‘Ideas for Reading’, with suggestions for extension work such as exploring ‘feelings’ and introducing the concept of hibernation for more able readers who could also perhaps retell the story in their own words, accompanied by some artwork.
???? ‘LOOK INSIDE’ above gives an idea of the content.
From the back cover:
???? ~’Ned the hedgehog is looking for a home in the cold, dark forest.
He needs somewhere warm and cosy to sleep, but all he keeps finding are other creatures’ homes:
…rabbits’, foxes’, owls’, bats’
Will he ever find a snug safe bed of his own?’
ooOoo
Measuring around 26.5 x 19 cm, the colourful autumnal cover opens to 16 good quality pages overall, with the story spanning 12. The delightful illustrations are wintry dark, with a short sentence on each page and a repeat element for familiarity & to help promote confidence.
Pages 14 & 15 show a map of the forest and the animals Ned comes across on his travels, before he finds his own special type of bed.
by smilesRcontagious
We’re huge fans of Tim Hopgood’s books, but have been a little disappointed by this rather short offering. Ned is a very likeable hedgehog on a journey to find somewhere to hibernate, but I feel even my 2 year old wanted the story to expand further. I think it may come in to its own when he’s a bit older and can add his own imagination and interpretation to the story though, hence the overall positive 4 star review.
by Stu Davis
Really liked the colourful illustrations together with the story which created a lot of interest with my nearly 3 year old grand daughter.
Fantastic book,
⁰ it would have scored 5 stars if the book was of thicker paper quality.