Hana Tooke’s page-turner The Unadoptables is bursting with eccentric characters that even reluctant readers will take to heart.
It’s perfect if you’re looking for a KS2 fiction book to do a topic about, and would work especially well for Year 6 classes.
The download contains primary school activities based on the book, and a worksheet that children can fill in.
The Unadoptables
Deep in the heart of Amsterdam sits a tall, narrow house. This is the Little Tulip Orphanage, a place of minimal suppers and very strict rules. Everything – including abandonment – is regulated.
Babies must be wrapped in a cotton blanket, placed in a wicker basket and deposited on the topmost step. But in 1880, when this story begins, five babies are left at the Little Tulip in ways that are increasingly ill-judged.
For Matron Gassbeek, the arrivals of Lotta, Fenna, Milou, Egg and Sem spell trouble.
Fizzing with invention, yet firmly rooted in first-hand knowledge and research, Hana Tooke’s debut novel imagines a rollercoaster adventure for these unusual orphans.
Paraded by Gassbeek for prospective adopters, the friends present themselves in an unappealing way – for if they are chosen, how will Milou’s birth family know where to reclaim her?
The children’s ‘unadoptable’ attitude enrages Gassbeek, a Dickens-meets-Dahl villain, who finally offers the children to the mysterious Rotman, a ship’s captain. But for what purpose? And can this man be trusted?
What will kids learn?
Bursting with eccentric characters, intriguing subplots and memorable details, this larger-than-life story is spiced with peril and suspense – but at its heart lies universal themes about the power of friendship, accepting and celebrating differences, caring for each other and creating your own family.
