I was working in a secondary school in South London with this book: David Almond's 'The Savage' yesterday. If you have not read it yet, you must. I think children from Year 4 upwards could enjoy it, although it has sw*** words in it, censored in this way with stars, and a character with a knife. No reason not to read it to school children though. Professional judgements based on teachers' knowledge of their children are needed - but not too conservative!
We were working with teachers on utilizing drama techniques and role-play scenarios around the action of the book. We were suggesting pre-reading activities, activities while reading it as a class and post-reading activities. This book has rich-potential for the generation of multiple meanings and it will encourage emotional and intellectial enagagement with the story and characters.
The front cover alone forms the basis of the first pre-reading activities - asking the children to deconstruct what the illustration and the text tells them about this story and what it might be about - pain, transformation, anger etc etc
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