Blue Peter Book Club: The Last Firefox

This guide is produced in partnership with Blue Peter.

The Last Firefox, written by Lee Newbery and illustrated by Laura Catálan, is the eighth title in the Blue Peter Book Club.

Charlie Challinor becomes the guardian of a furry fox named Cadno, Charlie must use all his courage to protect his new, fiery friend. Can Charlie save Cadno, The Last Firefox!

You can get a sneak peek of the book over on Blue Peter.

Did you notice something that keeps popping up throughout The Last Firefox?

Maybe it's Charlie's epic bravery, or maybe it's 'fire'? These are both themes in the story.

The theme of a story is an idea or thing that you keep seeing throughout. In The Last Firefox one of the key themes is fire!

Fire is a theme throughout the book because:

• Charlie's dad is a fireman
• the magical animal is a firefox
• Charlie is worried he will never find his 'inner fire' (bravery)
• many of the accidents that happen in the story involve fire

By using fire as a theme, Lee Newbery cleverly links together different features of the story: the characters, their special powers, the events that take place and the purpose of the whole story (to find Charlie's 'inner fire').

You might notice Charlie's personality changes from the start of the story, to the end of the story.

Authors purposefully plan ways, to clearly show how the main characters change as the story goes on. In The Last Firefox, this is very clear.

At first, Charlie is timid, shy and afraid of lots of things. But by the end of the story he is quite the opposite: brave, heroic, fearless and a little bit reckless.

When we first meet Charlie, he is terrified because he is being chased by a goose! Yet, due to his character development throughout the story, Charlie proves he has changed in the end when he finds his 'inner fire'.

These changes, from the start to the end of the story, show that Charlie develops and changes as a character - these changes are a fantastic example of character development.

The Last Firefox contains lots of writing techniques; can you spot any?

Short, snappy sentences are one of the writing techniques used throughout the story.

But what are short, snappy sentences? Take a look at the examples below.

• "The gateway leers at me." (page 96)

• "But I can't. I can't pretend I have inner fire. Except I have to." (page 125)

• "I falter. I can't get out of this one." (page 231)

• "I close my eyes. This is it. The end." (page 257)

As you can see, short, snappy sentences are short sentences that are easy to read. Sometimes, you can get two or three of them in a row.

But why do authors use them?

Using short, snappy sentences is a writing technique that has a powerful impact. They give the reader a sense or feeling that:

• something mysterious is happening
• tension is building
• something needs to, or is going to happen quickly (urgently)

As you can see from the examples above, the author of The Last Firefox uses short, snappy sentences to build tension and a sense of urgency throughout the story.

You might notice how the social worker Tanya Cleck speaks in the book.

In the story, Charlie mentions her "weird use of words." But why does the way she speak stand out so much?

Nearly all the characters in The Last Firefox speak to each other in an informal tone. This means the characters speak in a chatty, friendly and casual way.

However, Tanya Cleck stands out in the story because of her formal tone. A formal tone is a way of speaking in a serious, official and often less friendly way.

Check out these examples below of Tanya's formal tone.

"Now I would like a tour of the dwelling," she says. "Charlie, perhaps you could show me your bedchamber">