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Friend or Foe

Michael Morpurgo

It is 1940, and David and his best friend Tucky are sent away from bombed London to live on a farm on the Devon moors. The war seems far away until one night they see a German plane come down on the moor. Nobody believes them, so the boys set out to find the crash for themselves.

Length
About 25,000 words
To read it
About 17 days
Stage
Key Stage 2

Reading time at 1,500 words a day, the pace we start from until we know your child’s own.

Where it is taught

Why Friend or Foe is on the list

  • Year 6, Core. The books most schools teach in this year. A good place to start.

Reading it here

What your child does with it

  1. 1

    Choose it and set a finish date

    You get a suggested target from the length of the book and your child's reading pace.

  2. 2

    Check in along the way

    A longer book has short check-ins every week or two, so it keeps moving and nothing is forgotten.

  3. 3

    Answer two questions

    When they finish: a review of the book, and a deeper question about how it works.

  4. 4

    Get it marked, and redraft

    Every answer is marked against the rubric for their year, with a reason for every score.