Julian, secret agent Book

Three young kids Julian, his little brother Huey, and best friend Gloria, find themselves stuck in the Post Office due to heavy rain. Whilst there they look through Most-Wanted posters and it is here they decide they'd like to investigate crimes and criminals, it is here our secret agents are born. The story follows our three little investigators through their investigations and explorations, which include saving a trapped dog and rescuing a lost toddler.

This delightful story is well-written, realistic and interesting, and depicts characters still in the wonderful freshness of youth. I used this book on placement in my year 3 class where the children enjoyed and engaged with this book for so many reasons. The vocabulary used was contemporary and that made the story easier for the children to understand. Children engaged in class discussions for long periods and this helped with their comprehension of the story. I found it important that the children also understood and enjoyed the humour in the story as the book is written to their level. I have found when using other stories that this can often be missed and ultimately this helps promote a love and enjoyment of reading which is vital for all children in their learning development.

I have used this book in during lessons in many ways, setting comprehension questions which allowed pupils to depict the story as well as introduce their own ideas. I focused upon dilemmas the characters in the story faced and let pupils express their own opinions on these. I also allowed the children to be creative due to the enjoyment I found they were having out of the story and let them create their own new chapter for a re-release of the book. Ultimately my positive experience of using this book has led to the 5 star rating, there are many possibilities for using this book in the classroom and outside the classroom any child of a similar age will find great enjoyment in reading it.