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Description

Burglar Bill lives alone with a house full of stolen property. Every night after supper he goes off to work, stealing things. Every dawn he comes home with his sack full of stolen goods and sits down to his breakfast of stolen toast and marmalade and stolen coffee. Some of my favorite children’s stories are written in a style I call “philosophical whimsy.” In the story of Burglar Bill, the whimsy is aimed at encouraging us to think about the life of a full-time thief as if it were an almost boringly normal sort of middleclass life. The story invites us to see thieves as wayward human beings, rather than as monsters or madmen. This message may strike some readers as sentimental. On the other hand, the demonization of criminality so common in our society keeps us from recognizing the humanity we share with thieves and helps us to ignore or disguise some of the darker motivations we might otherwise find within ourselves as well.

Publication Date

1995

Publisher

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

City

Montclair

Keywords

burglars, family, philosophy for children, thieves, whimsy

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education | Education | Philosophy

Comments

Original publication: Matthews, Gareth B. (1995) Review of Burglar Bill by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (London: Mammoth, 1989). Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 12(2): 1.

<em>Burglar Bill</em> (1979) by Allan and Janet Ahlberg

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