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Cops and Robbers
by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Every robber in London plans to steal Christmas, and one honest policeman on a bicycle sets out to stop the lot of them.
A story about a grown-up hero and a grown-up villain, funny and rhyming in tone. We would put it with children of 4–7, and at a reading age of about 6 for reading alone.
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Our take on this book
It's Christmas, and the wicked robbers of the town are planning to steal all the children's presents — but Officer Pugh and the honest cops are on the case, in a rollicking rhyming caper that ends exactly as it should. Janet and Allan Ahlberg, the great husband-and-wife team behind Peepo and The Jolly Postman, deliver their trademark blend of bouncing verse and busy, detail-packed pictures full of things to spot. The story rattles along on its rhymes, made to be chanted aloud, and the robbers are comic rather than scary — villainy of the pantomime sort that gets its just deserts. There is nothing here to worry a young child. For a three- to six-year-old it is a warm, funny, Christmassy read-aloud with a satisfying happy ending, and the kind of book whose rhythm children quickly learn by heart and join in with. A cheerful classic from one of picture-book publishing's finest partnerships.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
A Squash and a SqueezeJulia Donaldson
Father ChristmasRaymond Briggs
The Highway RatJulia Donaldson
Charlie Cook's Favourite BookJulia Donaldson
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.