Book Title: A thief in the village by James Berry

The author James Berry was born and grew up in Jamaica. He was born on the 28^th September 1924 and later published the book Anansi the spider. He had five siblings and is a poet who emigrated and settled in England in 1948 as part of the Windrush generation . He won the National Poetry Society’s Annual prize for Fantasy of an African Boy and in 1987 A Thief in the Village was the Grand Prix winner of the Smarties Prize.

The first story in A Thief in the Village: The Wheels and Brake Boys is a lovely story about a girl who always watched the boys riding their bikes and whenever she went up to them, they would ride off – even her own cousin did.

The girl thought if she had a bike the boys wouldn’t treat her that way. Her mum and nana didn’t think she should have a bike, they thought that bikes are for boys.

Her family is tight on money so she thought that if she sold her dad’s helmet to the fire brigade then she would have enough money to buy a bike and ride with the wheels and brake boys. What actually happened was that the fire brigade took her home and spoke to her mother about what the girl was trying to do.

They took the girl and the mother in the car and showed her a bike that belonged to his nephew, that she could have for a small amount of money. The girl was delighted and she took the bike and rode with the boys.

I liked this book because it has brown characters and that it’s written with an accent in parts. I also like that the girl gets to ride with the boys in the end and that she was taught how to ride a bike because I love to ride my bike.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.