Burglar Bill

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The baby and Burglar Bill end up spending a day together, but when Bill is putting the baby to bed, he hears an intruder downstairs. It can be used in literacy classes to help the children analyse a character’s behaviour in a story and how this can change through the course of a story. He introduces the baby to Betty however Betty is already fully acquainted with the baby because the baby is actually hers!

Bill, a man who only has stolen things from his bed to his marmalade, is shocked to find he has stolen a baby! Allan Ahlberg is one of the UK's most acclaimed and successful authors of children's books - including the best-selling Jolly Postman series. The story itself is gleefully subversive in depicting a life of crime and redemption without consequence. Burglar Bill is a 1977 children's picture book illustrated by Janet Ahlberg and written by Allan Ahlberg about a burglar who accidentally steals a baby. Burglar Bill is an entertaining picture book by the iconic British husband and wife picture book team Janet and Allan Ahlberg, creators of Peepo!

though making the text more reader friendly, and changing the lay-out of some of the pages would be a start). We read it last night, and the kid loved it so much that he insisted we read it again first thing this morning. A book about a Career Burglar who decides to become a better man out of his own self-discovery (and not because he met the right woman) would be a far more compelling children's book. However the really lovely thing is how he is a reformed character by the end of the story so no wrong messages being sent about stealing.

The real adventure begins when he burgles a big brown box that was left on a doorstep, takes it home, and realises there's a baby inside it. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to repeat “I’m a widow lady” in a squeaky falsetto and I’ve loved hearing their giggles over the years. I found it quite amusing, with its blithe acceptance of Burglar Bill's crime sprees, and its tale of lifestyle reformation.Whatever the case might be, this is one I enjoyed, and that I would recommend to picture-book readers who enjoy humorous and somewhat quirky stories. I really don't like the story, and it's largely because I'm rarely a fan of books that have a woman and man meet and get together because they share this one thing in common story. One day Bill steals a baby and they have a fantastic time together until one day things change for Bill, he has an intruder in house who is about to steal from him. I find amusement in the fact that my issue isn't with the Willingly Be A Criminal Without Consequence, though that is a problem, but with the fact that it's teaching very typical media versions of relationships, which always bothers me.