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Stig of the DumpClive King
Stig of the Dump
by Clive King
Barney falls into a chalk pit and meets a boy from the Stone Age living at the bottom. Nobody believes him, which suits them both.
A story about children, adventurous and warm in tone. We would put it with children of 8–10, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
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Our take on this book
Barney, staying with his grandmother, tumbles into an old chalk pit and meets Stig — a boy who seems to belong to the Stone Age, living at the bottom in a den built of bones, tin cans and whatever the modern world has thrown away. Nobody believes Barney, which suits the two of them perfectly as they build, hunt and adventure together. Clive King's 1963 classic is a wonderful, matter-of-fact fantasy about an unlikely friendship across an impossible gap, told with such practical detail that Stig feels entirely real. There is adventure but nothing frightening; the mood is one of freedom, invention and the joy of a secret friend the grown-ups can't see. For an eight- to ten-year-old it is a warm, imaginative, enduring read — the kind of book that makes a child want to build a den of their own — and a lovely evocation of the unsupervised outdoor adventures that fewer children get to have now.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Danny the Champion of the WorldRoald Dahl
The Water HorseDick King-Smith
Swallows and AmazonsArthur Ransome
BrightstormVashti Hardy
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.