Perhaps my favourite of Mini Grey’s works, with lovely themes of acceptance and courage. The residents of Offley Street have found that their possessions are going missing, but help is at hand from an unknown detective… Hermelin the mouse. Wanting to thank and find out the identity of their helper, Hermelin is invited to a party- but the reception received is not that which he had expected! Hermelin is a natural-born detective. So when he discovers the street’s notice board plastered with despairing announcements of lost this or possibly stolen that, he’s on the case. The mouse easily locates Mrs. Mattison’s handbag behind some lettuce in her fridge. He finds Bobo the teddy bear, too, dropped from an attic window into Capt. Potts’ cooling lemon-meringue pie. As he solves each mystery, he leaves an explanatory note signed “Hermelin.” But who is Hermelin? The baffled villagers lure the mysterious hero with a thank-you party at Bosher’s sausage shop. When the little mouse shows up for his big moment, however, the terrified party-givers scream “MOUSE!” How could such a benevolent mouse-detective be perceived as a disease-spreading pest? Hermelin spirals into a full-blown identity crisis, brilliantly captured in nightmarish, comic-book–style panels. All ends well when a girl named Emily sees Hermelin for who he really is. Comical visual details abound, and each stamp-sized window of the Offley Street townhomes is a story in miniature, evoking all the wonder and delight of an advent calendar.

This unit of work is based on Hermelin: The Detective Mouse by Mini Grey. Hermelin is the most helpful, yet smallest resident of Offley Street, always helping his neighbours solve their mysteries.Look at the collection of books and notes in Hermelin’s attic. How many different kinds of text can you think of? Hermelin looks for the definition of ‘mouse’ in the dictionary. Could you use a dictionary to find the meanings of unfamiliar words? Could you write your own dictionary definitions for different words? Some people think that mice are ‘pests’. Can you create a new story about a pest that becomes a hero?

urn:lcp:hermelindetectiv0000grey:epub:dace9ecb-8c0c-49ae-8404-591e082215d8 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier hermelindetectiv0000grey Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t21d0dq43 Invoice 1652 Isbn 0385754337 I wouldn't necessarily use this book as a read aloud, because I think the illustrations and structure of the writing is fun for students to examine closely on their own. I would include this book in my classroom library for students to read in their free time and would recommend it to students who are not yet able to read text with complex vocabulary and dense writing. I might use this book in a "theme" study and ask students to identify the message of the book and relate it to a real life circumstance. This book is also a wonderful demonstration of different ways complex picture books can be written and why attention to detail is beneficial when piecing together the mystery and understanding the story. This book also has potential to discuss foreshadowing events and making inferences. Write your own newspaper article (or create a radio / video report) about the dramatic rescue of Baby McMumbo.Lccn 2013019508 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA15937 Openlibrary_edition Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-01-24 09:05:48 Boxid IA1765421 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Hermelin sees the words ‘unclean’, ‘unhygienic’ and ‘unwanted’ in the dictionary definition for ‘mouse’. Can you think of other words with the prefix ‘un-‘? Could you make a poster / chart that shows words with other prefixes. It’s a terrible thing for Hermelin to be so cruelly misjudged, especially when the mouse’s single aim is to help the hapless people of Offley Street. Hermelin is a rodent that lives on Osprey street and spends all his time observing his neighbors so that when things go missing he is able to solve the case. But there is one resident that may be observing Hermelin! What will he do when he's found out?

At the end of the story, Hermelin and Emily work together to solve crimes. Can you think of ways that animals help humans to achieve different tasks? SR: 712626], Hardcover, [EAN: 9780385754330], Knopf Books for Young Readers, Knopf Books for Young Readers, Book, [PU: Knopf Books for Young Readers], 2014-08-05, Knopf Books for Young R… More... Hermelin has some binoculars. How do these work? Can you describe how we are able to see things? How do our eyes work? Look at the foods in your lunch box (or on your dinner menu). What do the ingredients come from? Could you plot these on a map? How might they travel around the world to reach your table? The dictionary definition of ‘mouse’ shows that Hermelin is a ‘pest’. What other creatures are thought of as pests?A round cheese box bounces out of a van onto the street. The makers’ name on the box is Hermelin. From the moment the book is opened, the reader is presented with clues; clues that lie in the detail of the illustration. How appropriate when the book is about a mouse, a detective mouse, and yes, his name is Hermelin. This was a fun and endearing read which has the versatility to be used throughout the key stages, particularly because the depth and detail of Grey’s illustrations allows for so much exploration at any age. There is a montage-like overlapping to her pictures which is not only creative, but which perfectly builds the anticipation and drama surrounding the events on Offley Street. This is so entertaining, and she recreates the typically punchy crime story in a way that feels familiar, yet is presented in an inventive way requiring a high level of participation from the reader. At the end of the story, there is a piece of paper in the typewriter. Can you write a story about ‘The Mystery of the Missing Moggies’? Hermelin begins by looking for Mrs. Mattison’s lost handbag. Being a mouse who is very observant and who remembers what he sees, he soon finds the handbag in her fridge behind the lettuce. He then finds Dr. Parker’s glasses. Hermelin saw Dr. Parker wearing those same glasses just that morning and at the time she was reading a book, Medical Monthly. It turns out that the glasses are inside the book.