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Stitch Head
by Guy Bass
The eponymous Stich Head is a boy-creature created by a mad scientist
Professor Erasmus Erasums along with many other monstrous creations.
The story has elements of ‘Frankenstein’ but more ‘Edward Scissorhands’
and is a sweet, charming, gruesomely funny tale of a lonely boy who meets
two unlikely friends. Winsome and well-written with a suitably happy
ending. This book is written in the third person in the past tense.
Guy Bass won a Blue Peter Book Award for Dinkin Dings and the
Frightening Things in 2010 and he has written a number of plays for both
adults and children.
www.guybass.com
Illustrations are by Pete Williamson.
www.petewilliamson.co.uk
CHAPTER SYNOPSIS
Foreword: Warning (p5)
A poem that sets up the myth of Castle Grotteskew.
Prologue: A Better Class of Freak (p9-16)
We meet the unpleasant Freakfinder and his carnival of freaks who are
visiting the village of Grubbers Nubbin at some unspecified period in
the past (that looks vaguely Victorian). None of the populace is
impressed because the village already has its own scary castle full of
monsters.
Chapter 1: Life in Castle Grotteskew (p17-25)
We meet Mad Professor Erasmus, creator of all the ‘brain-meltingly
strange creatures’. The oldest of which is the boy-creature Stitch Head.
The latest creature is particularly large, gruesome and violent (because
of the full moon).
Chapter 2: Werewolf Extract (p27-34)
Stitch Head takes care of the Professor’s monstrous creations by finding
ways to tame them: in this case, by pouring ‘Wolf-away’ onto Creature.
Chapter 3: Monstrous Rampage Thing (p35-44)
Stitch Head has calmed the monster. In fact he seems a rather nervous
but friendly chap. He wants to be friends with Stitch Head. But Stitch
Head has never had a friend and isn’t sure he wants to start with one
now.
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Chapter 4: A Tour of the Castle (p45-56)
Creature meets the other monsters who are ‘the nicest unnatural horrors
it had ever met’ and very polite, too. Stitch Head is still trying to shake
off his new friend.
Chapter 5: At Home with Stitch Head (p57-66)
Creature follows Stitch Head to his dungeon. It’s almost homely (or
possibly ‘grotty and grub-infested’). I noise at the castle gate makes
Stitch Head think the villagers have come to take the Professor –
something he has always feared.
Chapter 6: Visitors (p67-76)
Instead it’s Fulbert Freakfinder. Stitch Head finds he rather enjoys the
attention for the ringmaster.
Chapter 7: Creature Comforts (p77-90)
Stitch Head wonders if life in the carnival would give him a purpose.
Meanwhile Creature has turned Stitch’s dungeon into a party pad with
candles. Stitch Head explains that he was the Professor’s first creation as
a boy. At first they were happy but then the Professor has to take over
the family business (of being a mad professor) and Stitch is locked away
– alone – for four decades.
The story upsets him; he orders Creature from his dungeon and is alone
again.
Chapter 8: Climbing the Walls (p91-102)
Freakfinder returns every day; Stitch still refuses his offer.
Chapter 9: Freak Like Me (p103-110)
Stitch dreams of being free of the castle, of being famous and adored.
Stitch receives a mysterious invitation.
Chapter 10: Dingle Dangle (p111-124)
Creature dangles Stitch in front of the Professor; but there is still no
recognition from the mad scientist.
Chapter 11: Stitch Head’s Decision (p125-134)
Stitch opens the castle door: it’s a terrible mistake. Freakfinders wants
the Professor so he can make as many freaks as he wants, not Stitch at
all.
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Chapter 12: Arabella (p135-143)
Freakfinder has kidnapped Arabella, a village girl. His plan is that the
villagers will hunt her down at the castle, kill the monsters, leaving the
Professor to him.
Chapter 13: Plans and Potions (p144-152)
Stitch throws two calming potions at Freakfinder and his entourage,
putting them to sleep. He rescues the feisty Arabella.
Chapter 14: Awakenings and Introductions (p153-160)
Arabella meets Creature. Stitch decides the only way to save the day
(and the Professor) is to make Creature scary again.
Chapter 15: The Siege of Castle Grotteskew (p161-172)
Creature defeats the villagers but Freakfinder has gone after the
Professor.
Chapter 16: Saving the Professor (p173-186)
Stitch awakens the Professor’s latest monster (even bigger than
Creature) and sets him upon Freakfinder, who is chased from the castle.
Briefly the Professor recognises and remembers Stitch: ‘It was enough’.
Epilogue: Unforgettable (p187-191)
Arabella promises to stay friends and for the first time Stitch approaches
a future that he believes will be ‘unforgettable’
GUIDED READING – STITCH HEAD
APP Reading Links
Assessment Focus
AF2 - Session 1: Level 4/5
Session 2: Level 4/5
AF3 - Session 1: Level 4/5
Session 2: Level 4/5
AF5 - Session 1: Level 4/5
Session 2: Level 4/5
AF6 - Session 1: Level 4/5
Session 2: Level 4/5
AF7 - Session 1: Level 4/5
Session 2: Level 4/5
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Learning Objectives
These relate to the Literacy Framework for Teaching, the National Literacy
Target Statements for Reading at Year 5 and the Assessing Pupils Progress
(APP) Reading and Writing Assessment Guidelines.
• Analyse a quest myth, identifying the text structure and language
features.
• Deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts.
• Identify and comment on writers’ purposes and viewpoints, and the
overall effect of the text on the reader.
Core learning in literacy
Year 5 – most children learn:
Understanding and interpreting texts
• Identify features that writers use to provoke readers' reactions.
Group discussion and interaction
• Use the language of possibility to investigate and reflect on feelings,
behaviour or relationships.
Engaging with and responding to texts
• Empathise with characters and debate moral dilemmas portrayed in
texts.
• Identify features that writers use to provoke readers' reactions.
The focus should always be on reading and helping children to enjoy and
interpret the text. Some of the activities encourage children to write about
the book.
Drama
• Use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues.
Creating and shaping texts
• Use beginning, middle and end to write narratives in which events
are sequenced logically and conflicts resolved.
• Select and use a range of technical and descriptive vocabulary.
Text structure and organisation
• Signal sequence, place and time to give coherence.
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Session 1 (AF2, AF3, AF5, AF6, AF7)
Introducing the text
• What sort of a creature is Stitch Head?
• Discuss what children know about Frankenstein’s monster and the
concept of a creature being made from spare body parts.
Strategy check
The creature on the cover is a monster sewn together from body parts. But
he’s scared of something? What might scare a monster?
Independent reading
Children read pages 5 to 25.
Return to the text
Discuss the following:
• How does the illustration on page 4 set the mood?
• How does the ‘warning’ poem add to this?
• What is the pun in the poem? [Two meanings of ‘trump’]
• Comment on the double page illustration (p6-7). Where and when
might this story be set? What are the clues? What mood does it
convey?
• What is the difference between a circus, carnival and freak show
(p9)? [Circus – travelling company of performers; carnival – public
celebration or parade; freak show – an exhibition of human and animal
oddities, often grotesque.]
• Comment on the simile on page 16: ‘an evil grin spread across his
face like a disease’.
• What sort of monsters are mentioned on page 18?
• Comment on the description of Stitch (p20).
• Discuss the oxymoron on page 21: ‘a near perfect balance of
disgustingness and monstrousness’.
• Comment on the disgustingness of the last paragraph on page 25.
What is the purpose of such grossness?
Follow-up activity 1
• Page 10 gives an example of how to write accents and language that
is specific to one particular character; language that develops
characterisation. Write a sentence in the style of Fulbert Freakfinder.
• Choose another accent or flamboyant way of speaking. Write a
sentence in that style. Can your classmates guess what the accent
is/what type of person it is by simply reading the sentence?
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Follow-up activity 2
• How is the design of this book different from other paperback
stories? With a friend, list three differences. [The pages are printed to
look like parchment; the chapters dividers add detail and humour to the
story; some pages are white text on black – you see this in picture books but
rarely in novels; there are small illustrations amongst the text as well as
double-page illustrations.]
• Think of two reasons why the publishers might have wanted these
differences for this book.
Session 2 (AF2, AF3, AF5, AF6, AF7)
Children read pages 27 to 66 (the end of chapter 5).
Response to the text
• Comment on the phrase ‘panic stretching his stitches to breaking
point’ (p28).
• List the powerful verbs on page 28 (third paragraph).
• Why does Stitch hate being outside (p31)?
• What do you think he means by ‘you promised’ (p31)?
• Comment on the repetition of ‘almost-life’ throughout the book
(example on p36).
• Comment on Creature’s first thoughts (p39).
• Comment on the style in which Creature’s speech is portrayed.
• ‘The thought of being friends with this new Creature terrified him’
(p42). Why?
• Which is your favourite monster from pages 46 to 51?
• How are they different from stereotypical monsters? What is the
effect of this?
• Why does Stitch live the way he does (p60)?
• Why is Stitch so terrified that the villagers have come for the
Professor (p66)?
Strategy check
Ask children to make assumptions about what they think might happen
next?
Independent reading
Children finish the book.
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Return to the text
Discuss the following:
• Comment on the way Freakfinder interacts with Stitch in chapter six.
• How might the monsters make Freakfinder rich?
• Comment on the figurative language ‘as if every single shadow had
been banished for misbehaving’ (p80).
• ‘I don’t want any friends. Except…’ Why does Stitch bite off what he
was going to say (p81)?
• Why doesn’t the Professor come back for Stitch?
• Comment on why page 87 is so powerful and moving. Which is your
favourite line? [Mine is: ‘I wiped the dust from my eyes…’]
• Why does Stitch throw Creature out of the dungeon (p90)?
• ‘He no longer felt bound to the castle’ (p104). What has changed for
Stitch?
• Do you think the Dingle Dangle was a good idea (p120)?
• ‘Stitch Head’s tiny borrowed heart sank’ (p122). Why is this a
powerful and emotive sentence?
• Comment on the repetition of ‘free’ on page 133.
• How is Arabella different from most damsels in distress (chapter 12)?
• Why is Arabella’s ‘natural love of scariness’ (p157) oxymoronic?
• Comment on the humour, ‘it’s every head in a jar for itself’ (p163).
• ‘Everything had changed, but some things, it seemed, never would’
(p183). Explain this contradictory statement.
• Why is it ‘enough’ for Stitch that the Professor remembers him
(p185)?
• Did you like the ending in the Epilogue? Why? Why not?
Follow-up activity 3
• Re-read pages 39 and 40. Make a list of the thoughts that Creature
has in the first moments of his almost-life.
• Make up some more questions that might puzzle Creature.
Follow-up activity 4
• Correct the spelling on Creature’s invitation (p110).
• Explain why the author wrote it like this.
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Extensions
Extension 1 (literacy)
• The poem on page 135 is loosely (very loosely) based on Elizabeth
Barrett Browning. Read the original poem, ‘How do I love thee’
(sonnet 43). www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15384
• Find out the form and rhyme scheme of a sonnet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
Extension 2 (cross-curricular)
• In what ways is the moon supposed to affect people or monsters?
• Find out where the word ‘lunacy’ comes from.
http://spookspot.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/moon-and-lunarmyths/
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Stitch Head (1)
ODDS, BODS, AND WONDERFULLY WEIRD
Imagine that Stitch Head and his friends decided to set up their own
travelling carnival. What would they put on their poster?
Look at Fulbert Freakfinder’s poster on page 9.
Now design a poster for Stitch Head’s show.
Remember to use:
• alliteration
• hyperbole (exaggeration used to provoke strong emotions)
• a hint (but not more) of the kind of things the visitor would see at
the show
• different font sizes.
Enjoy Guided Reading: Year 5 Book 5 © Badger Learning
5
Stitch Head (2)
C HILD , C HILD , S TAY A WAY
AND LIVE TO BREATHE ANOTHER DAY
The village of Grubbers Nubbin has lots of local myths and legends about
Castle Grotteskew. Many are in the form of short poems.
Re-read the Warning at the beginning of the book, and the sestet (sixline poem) on page 17.
Lucy, Lucy, good and true,
Went to Castle Grotteskew.
Thought she’d see what lurked inside,
But for her troubles, Lucy died.
Before she perished, she did say,
“Monsters! Creatures! Go away!”
Write your own sestet warning children to stay away from Castle
Grotteskew.
Because, let’s face it, that’s what this poem is for: to warn children not
to enter the castle. If there really had been a ‘Lucy’, how would anyone
have known what she’d said before she died? Unless they’d been there,
and ended up being a bit dead, too.
Tip: Use rhyming couplets.
There are some good rhymes to be found at www.rhymezone.com
Enjoy Guided Reading: Year 5 Book 5 © Badger Learning
5
Stitch Head (3)
GRUESOME INGREDIENTS
It’s not easy making a monstrous monster. It takes:
• a tonne of work
• an ounce of brains (preferably your own, but in your skull, not as
an ingredient)
• and a lot of luck.
Oh, and some ingredients, too.
Re-read the recipe on page 35.
1.
2.
3.
4.
List your ingredients.
Write your incantation (the words for the spell).
Choose a special word to awaken your creation.
Oh, and give it a name, please, because if they’re all called ‘Creature’
it gets really confusing.
Enjoy Guided Reading: Year 5 Book 5 © Badger Learning
5
Stitch Head (4)
POTIONS AND POWDERS
Stitch Head uses Wolf-Away to calm Creature and stop him from
rampaging through the village. (See page 29.)
Design a label each for a potion or powder that:
• Turns vampires into vegetarians
• Turns fire-breathing monsters into
air conditioners
− Choose a name
− Decide whether it’s a potion
(elixir) or powder
− What dose must be taken
− When must the dose be taken
WOLF-­‐AWAY Curative Elixir For the Treatment of Sudden and / or Acute Werewolfism Two droplets to be taken before bedtime Enjoy Guided Reading: Year 5 Book 5 © Badger Learning