As part of our work on biographies and autobiography in literacy, we have been finding out about Roald Dahl and especially researching his recount of the ‘Great Mouse Plot’.
Here are some examples of work written by Year 6.
The Great Mouse Plot (WS)
Mrs Pratchett’s sweet shop was by far the best sweet shop, but what put them off was its owner; Mrs Pratchett was a skinny, bad tempered lady with the grubbiest hands ever…
One wonderful day in the town of Llandaff in Wales, Roald Dahl and his friends were on the way to school when they popped into the sweet shop. When they walked in, there she was; the mean and grim Mrs Pratchett stood there.
“What do you want? You horrible lot!”
If they didn’t spend a sixpence or more than they would have their sweets wrapped up in a piece of newspaper. They hurried out of the sweetshop and jogged along to school. Exhausted and tired, they went into the classroom.
At the back of the classroom there was a loose floorboard which they had lifted up with the blade of a pocket knife…
Below the floorboard they kept their treasures and sweets. One day they opened it up and found a dead mouse. Although it was dead, it seed to say,
“Put me in the jar!”
They slipped into Roald Dahl’s pocket and headed over to the sweet shop. Thwaites ordered a sherbert sucker while Roald Dahl slipped it into the gobstopper jar!
“Thank you!”they all said and they trotted off.
The next morning they walked past the sweet shop and on the door it surprisingly said. ‘CLOSED’ in big letters. Shocked and worried, they peered in to see nobody there, the jar on the floor smashed to smithereens, and the dead mouse lying there with the gobstoppers surrounding it.
“Oh no!” they said. “What has happened? She’s not there!”
The Great Mouse Plot (JF)
The sweet shop that Roald Dahl, Thwaites and their friends loved was owned by Mrs Pratchett. Sweets were their life; they loved sweets more than anything, but they also hated Mrs Pratchett more than anything. Grubby and smelly, her hands plunged into the jars and the sweets came out smelling revolting.
With all the foetid things that Mrs Pratchett had done, the boys decided to come up with a plan to get their revenge. Under the floorboard in the classroom where the sweets lay, lay a putrid, dead mouse; they decided to make a plan… on Mrs Pratchett. Ronald took the dreadful mouse and stuffed it into his bag.
The next day, when the boys were walking to school, they passed the sweet shop. Excited and nervous, the boys headed into the shop.
“I w…w…would l-like a bootlace and a sherbert sucker p-p-p-please,” stuttered Thwaites. Whilst Mrs Pratchett was getting the sweets, Roald Dahl silently dropped the mouse into the gobstopper jar.
The next morning they were excited to see what had happened. So, when they peered into the shop, they saw the jar smashed and the dead mouse lying in the gobstoppers. They couldn’t stop for long because they were late for prayers so they ran the rest of the way. When they got to the school they headed straight outside because everyone else was there. A few minutes later, the head teacher, Mr Coombes, came out with an alive Mrs Pratchett! She started to inspect every child. When she came to Dahl and his friends she shouted,
“That’s them!”
Half an hour later Mr Coombes beckoned them into his office…