Join a found family on a perilous journey in Kieran Larwood’s charming adventure story, The Legend of Podkin One-Ear. This PDF contains lots of ideas based on the novel to try in your KS2 classroom.
Why teach The Legend of Podkin One-Ear?
The Legend of Podkin One-Ear is action-packed and filled with fascinating characters (both good and bad). It tells its story-within-a-story extremely cleverly. It won the 2017 Blue Peter Book Award.
The world created by Kieran Larwood is exceptional. The book is almost Tolkienesque in the way that Larwood has stuffed it with mythology, folklore and history. All of this adds extra depth to the main narrative.
The follow-up novels (which are all worth reading) expand upon the world of The Five Realms. By the time that you have enjoyed all seven books that are currently available, it’s a world that you will feel totally immersed in.
David Wyatt’s incredible double-page illustrations bring so much to the book. Whenever you arrive at one, they are worth pausing at and taking some time to explore.
The Legend of Podkin One-Ear is rapidly heading towards classic status. Every year, I have a group of children who fall in love with Podkin, his family and friends.
It’s a book that I often recommend to teaching colleagues. Podkin’s universe is so rich with detail, and a huge amount of fun to journey through.
It’s filled with opportunities for discussion, writing and artwork, as well as providing wonderful chances to make comparisons with other books.
What is The Legend of Podkin One-Ear about?
Podkin’s comfortable life as the eldest son of Lopkin (the chieftain of the Munbury warren) is dramatically and tragically torn apart when a group of evil, iron-clad rabbits, known as the Gorm, invade his warren one Bramblemass Eve.
Podkin, his sister Paz, and their baby brother, Pook, are forced to flee their home, leaving everything they know and love behind.
As they begin to adjust to their new life, meeting a wide range of characters along the way, they realise that danger lurks almost everywhere.
The relentless Gorm, led by the evil Scramashank, have no intention of letting them escape and are a continual threat.
With the help and guidance of Brigid, a witch, they eventually arrive at Boneroot, a town of runaways and refugees hidden in an ancient graveyard. But, inevitably, all is not as it first appears…
Jon Biddle is an experienced primary school teacher and English lead. Winner of the 2018 Reading for Pleasure Experienced Teacher of the Year award, he coordinates the national Patron of Reading initiative.
