‘This original and exciting novel...will hold the reader’s attention throughout. The world-building here is so seamless it’s almost unnoticeable’

-School Reading List

School Reading List

This children’s book is ideal for: looking at how world-building is achieved in children’s fiction, and how the introduction of tension and jeopardy means that middle grade stories are often more detailed and character-led than those written for younger readers.

Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:

  • Effra is befriended by Bow, a lubber who assists her – and her pet rat, Clay – on their quest. Would Effra have been successful without their help?

  • The description on the back of the book mentions it is set ‘in a time and place which might be now’. What did you notice that proves or disproves this statement?

  • What would it be like to live by a river? Would you prefer to be a Larker or a lubber?

  • Larker is a shortened version of mudlarker, while lubber stems from landlubber. What do these two words mean? Did you know either of them before reading this book?

  • Effra and Clay communicate using Larker Bubble language, which the rat sometimes gets a little muddled up! If you could talk with one animal in a similar way, which would you choose and why?

One minute Introduction to The Girl with Gills