Monday 13th  April 2026

At the weekend I borrowed a book from the library and found a £10 note in it - someone had obviously been using it as a bookmark.

What could I do with the money?

What should I do with the money?

Prompts for discussion: 

It is wrong because,

However,

On the other hand,

LC: To be able to  identify and discuss an issue or dilemma in a story and to identify plot structures for an issue or dilemma narrative.

An issue a subject or problem that people think or talk about, or need to deal with:

A dilemma is a difficult situation where you have to make a choice between two options but neither seems like the best one. 

Let's read this poem together:

 What's happened to Lulu?

 By: Charles Causley  

What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lu?
There’s nothing in her bed but an old rag-doll
And by its side a shoe.

Why is her window wide, mother,
The curtain flapping free,
And only a circle on the dusty shelf
Where her money box used to be?

Why do you turn your head, mother,
And why do tear drops fall?
And why do you crumple that note on the fire
And say it is nothing at all?

I woke to voices late last night,
I heard an engine roar.
Why do you tell me the things I heard
Were a dream and nothing more?

I heard someone cry, mother,
In anger or in pain,
But now I ask you why, mother,
You say it was a gust of rain.

Why do you wonder around as though
You don’t know what to do?
What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lu?

Discussion: What was the issue?

What was the mother's dilemma? 

Discuss and identify the dilemma in the poem below. 

I did a Bad Thing Once

by Allan Ahlberg

I did a bad thing once

I took this money from my mother’s purse

For bubble gum

What made it worse

She bought me some For being good,

while I’d been vice versa

So to speak – that made it worser.

We are going to create a plot structure for this poem and the one below:

My turn:

Plot structure for the poem I did a bad thing once. 

Your turn: listen to the poem please Mr Butler and write a plot pattern for it.