I thought this was a fascinating story, with a twist I didn’t remember from when I read this book as a child.
Barney meets a new friend Stig when he is staying at his Grandmother’s house. The ground gives way and Barney lands in a cave, in the middle of the rubbish dump, Barney meets Stig.
Nobody believes that Stig is real and there is no thought to where Stig has come from and why he doesn’t speak English. Yet, Stig and Barney become such good friends and work together to improve Stig’s cave.
On one hot summer’s night Barney and his sister Lou can't sleep, so they sneak out to go and see Stig. When they arrive at the quarry, nothing is familiar and they wonder if they are dreaming or if it is real. They realise that they are at the North Downs and instead of the television mast and villages; instead there is nothing but forest and heath over the floor of the valley. They find Stig at a moonlight party with his own people, erecting four gigantic standing stones. Stig invites them to join the party and they help to shift the final stone into position before sunrise.
The story ends with the children picnicking with their parents quite a long time later at the North Downs and getting into an argument about how the stones ended up there. Of course, the children know exactly how the stones got there!
I loved this story and I think this would be a perfect book for independent reading at 7+ KS2, or to be read aloud to KS1. Stig of the Dump
Barney meets a new friend Stig when he is staying at his Grandmother’s house. The ground gives way and Barney lands in a cave, in the middle of the rubbish dump, Barney meets Stig.
Nobody believes that Stig is real and there is no thought to where Stig has come from and why he doesn’t speak English. Yet, Stig and Barney become such good friends and work together to improve Stig’s cave.
On one hot summer’s night Barney and his sister Lou can't sleep, so they sneak out to go and see Stig. When they arrive at the quarry, nothing is familiar and they wonder if they are dreaming or if it is real. They realise that they are at the North Downs and instead of the television mast and villages; instead there is nothing but forest and heath over the floor of the valley. They find Stig at a moonlight party with his own people, erecting four gigantic standing stones. Stig invites them to join the party and they help to shift the final stone into position before sunrise.
The story ends with the children picnicking with their parents quite a long time later at the North Downs and getting into an argument about how the stones ended up there. Of course, the children know exactly how the stones got there!
I loved this story and I think this would be a perfect book for independent reading at 7+ KS2, or to be read aloud to KS1.
Stig of the Dump