Christopher William Hill Learning Resources
Creative activities based on Osbert the Avenger
CFE Level 2 (Ages 8-11)
About Christopher William Hill and Osbert the Avenger
Christopher William Hill’s Tales from Schwartzgarten series is a delightfully grisly and
humorous romp through the city of Schwartzgarten, where incident and intrigue are never
far away. Osbert the Avenger is the first in the four-part series and follows the tale of
Osbert Brinkhoff, a precocious boy who becomes determined to dish out justice when his
family and friends suffer at the hands of Schwartzgarten’s most powerful people. For fans
of Dahl and Lemony Snicket, Schwartzgarten should definitely be the next stop on their
reading journey.
Christopher William Hill is a renowned playwright and novelist and is a previous winner of
the Peter Tinniswood Award and a BBC Radio and Music Award. He has written a number
of successful plays for children, including 2009’s Heartbreak Beautiful which has been
performed in the National Theatre and more recently in Sao Paulo. His favourite authors
as a child included Edward Gorey, whose eerie and sinister style are echoed in Hill’s
writing for children. He has a fondness for writing about oddballs and anti-heroes, saying,
“Show me a character who likes rainbows and magical unicorns and I will show you a
bucket to be sick into.”1
About this resource
This resource has been written to support the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour with
Christopher William Hill. However, the resource has been designed so you can use it at
any point to engage classes and book groups with Osbert the Avenger.
To find out more about the Tour and how to apply for upcoming tours, please visit
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/teachers-librarians/scottish-friendly-childrensbook-tour
1
https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/guest-author-interviews.php?page_id=christopher%20william%20hill, 16
April 2015
Activities
Research Harry Houdini LIT 2-14a, LIT 2-25a
Mr. Rudulfus’ escapology act is famous throughout Schwartzgarten, although it achieves
infamy after his gruesome end. Ask your pupils to research the life and amazing
escapology tricks of Harry Houdini – this site is packed with information:
http://www.thegreatharryhoudini.com/. After this, ask them to present what they’ve learned
in a new text. You could ask them to recreate one of his famous tricks as a comic strip or
even a drama script.
Write some obituaries Eng 2-27a, LIT 2-28a
The teachers from the Institute are feared throughout Schwartzgarten, but after the
Principal’s demise the town newspapers will be free to write some truthful obituaries! Ask
your pupils to write the obituaries of one of the teachers. They should include physical
descriptions, significant biographical information, details of their grisly deaths and what
other people thought of them (some quotes from pupils or townspeople would be fitting!).
Unlikely heroes LIT 2-25a, Eng 2-31a
Osbert doesn’t fit the mould of the traditional hero: firstly he doesn’t look the way we
expect a hero to look, and secondly his actions are hardly virtuous! Discuss with your
pupils what we might expect a typical hero to look like, drawing on their experience from
novels, comics and films. How is Osbert different? Challenge your pupils to come up with
their own unlikely heroes – they can use the following prompt questions for ideas:
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What does your character look like?
How do they act?
Why would they be considered an unlikely hero? Is it because of either one of the
previous points?
What prompted them to become a hero? Did something bad happen to them, like
Osbert?
What acts of heroism do they carry out?
What equipment and costumes do they make use of?
After they have come up with their characters, they can produce a story or comic strip
about one of their characters’ heroic deeds.
Find out about your town’s past LIT 2-25a, Tch 2-04a, SOC 2-01a
Schwartzgarten has a colourful past! Ask your pupils to find out about the history of their
home town. You can invite local experts in to speak and take journeys to some local points
of interest. Your pupils could compile their research into a custom Google Map.
It’s easy to make your own customised Google map: you need to create a Google account,
so you can set up one account for the whole class to use to ensure privacy. Find out how
to create a Google account here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUnv8JdxF24 And find out
how to make custom maps here:
www.google.co.uk/earth/outreach/tutorials/custommaps.html
The whole class can collaborate on a Google Map at the same time and each person can
save as they make changes.
Write Mr. Rudulfus’ diary Eng 2-31a, Eng 2-19a
The story is mostly explored from Osbert’s point of view, so why not get your pupils to
explore events from Mr. Rudulfus’ perspective? To make sure they capture Rudulfus’
character accurately, ask them to mind map all the aspects of his character first. After this,
get them to write a series of diary entries leading up to the day of Rudulfus’ spectacular
demise. The entries could begin the day before the death of Professor Ingelbrod, showing
Rudulfus in his normal state of mind, and then chart his increasing panic and scheming as
he tries to outwit Osbert (all the while being terrorised by ravens).
Raven mad LIT 2-14a, SCN 2-01a
To Mr. Rudulfus, ravens are just pests. But ravens, and the crow family to which they
belong, are fascinating birds demonstrating remarkable intelligence. If you want to use this
as a springboard for a project about ravens and other British birds, the following resources
may be useful:
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A National Geographic video talking about the intelligence of ravens:
http://bit.ly/NatGeoRavens
The BBC’s collection of videos on birds: http://bit.ly/BBCLearningBirds
If you’d like to go down a different angle, you could do a project about animals renowned
for their acute intelligence. Here are a few useful starting points:
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Bottlenose Dolphin facts: http://ngkids.co.uk/animals/dolphins
A BBC Earth video showing dolphins learning: http://bit.ly/BBCEarthDolphins
Another BBC Earth video showing how parrots are capable of much more than simply
hearing and repeating: http://bit.ly/BBCEarthParrots
Elephants’ ability to solve problems is shown in this video:
http://bit.ly/DiscoveryElephants
If you and your pupils loved Osbert the Avenger...
Why not try some of the grisly reads on this list:
http://scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-lists/10-grisly-reads-for-8-11s
You could check out this list of books with horrible teachers:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-lists/7-nasty-teachers-8-11
Or if you liked the kindly Mr. Lomm, try this list: http://scottishbooktrust.com/reading/booklists/6-nice-teachers-8-11