The Adventures of Naughty Nora
14 fun stories of everyday life for collective worship, assemblies and storytelling in the classroom.
Stephen Cottrell
Currently out of print £6.99 View sample pagesBishop Stephen understands children and knows intuitively how to appeal to their sense of fair play.
Sue Drake, Head Teacher, Lindley CE VA Infant School, Huddersfield
Content
Naughty Nora is a mischievous girl who seems to get into all sorts of trouble every day!The stories of her adventures will appeal to Key Stage 2 children and tease out the message of God's grace present in everyday life.
Rather than operating as definite teaching material, each story is designed to promote reflective thinking in an entertaining and fun way.
With lively storytelling and Christian resonances, they are ideal for assembly and RE.
Endorsements
Bishop Stephen understands children and knows intuitively how to appeal to their sense of fair play.
Sue Drake, Head Teacher, Lindley CE VA Infant School, Huddersfield
Reviews
From The Methodist Recorder - 13 June 2008
The introduction to a recently published book of assemblies is a publicist's dream: 'Stephen Cottrell was consecrated as Bishop of Reading and within that role enjoys telling stories about Naughty Nora.' The mind boggles.
In northern schools, the name Nora has other unfortunate associations. 'Nitty Nora' is the fabled and ferocious searcher after headlice. And how many 2008 children are called Nora? Having said that, The Adventures of Naughty Nora is undeniably fun.
Naughty Nora could be Beryl the Peril, or Minnie the Minx, and in some ways she would come over better in a cartoon format. But the stories do connect realistically with the Christian faith - by far the strongest aspect of the book. Forgiveness, joy, and wonder are at the heart of this enterprising little volume, easily adaptable to a Key Stage 2 assembly.
Reviewed by Dennis Richards
Reviewed by Gill Hipwell, Diocesan Schools Adviser, Diocese of Norwich - April 2008
Every child will be able to identify with Nora - and every adult too! Nora is a typically naughty little girl who attracts mayhem and disaster like a magnet. A mixture of enthusiasm, thoughtlessness and sheer bad luck gets her into more than her fair share of hot water but we cannot help but love her. Nora's long suffering family and teachers demonstrate a mixture of exasperation, patience and forgiveness to ensure that, whatever she has done, she is never in any doubt that she is loved. As a resource for collective worship and teaching about Christian values this is definitely a winner. Every story connects with what is important in the lives of children and every outcome is rooted in justice, forgiveness and hope. Nora has a lot to learn but she also has a great deal to teach us all.
Particularly useful for those leading collective worship are the links to the Bible and the simple prayers at the end of each story, whilst the 'questions to explore' are excellent for stimulating discussion in smaller groups.
From The Methodist Recorder - 10 April 2008
Nine-year-old girls can be an ebullient bunch and Stephen Cottrell has distilled a lot of their inventiveness into The Adventures of Naughty Nora, which had their origin in stories told to Lindley Infant School in Huddersfield.
Nora's love of life and fun leaves a good deal of broken china and spilled paint in its wake, as she complicates life for her parents, little brother, teacher and head-teacher - let alone the goodest girl in the school, Amanda Goodchild.
Nora learns from the results of her escapades, however - most importantly, that God's love is big enough to forgive all her shortcomings.
Each of the 14 episodes is followed by questions for the listeners, relevant sayings of Jesus, a prayer and suggestions for retelling the story - not excluding the one where Dad eats the cat food!
Reviewed by Margaret Daniels
Book details
- ISBN: 9781841013886
- Published: 21 March 2008
- Status:
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 128