A HOOLIGAN bunny whose only interests are Chelsea and kung fu is the star of a new book which is helping boys learn to read.

The Chelsea Bunny was written by Paul Blum, assistant head at Islington Green, a tough, inner-city school in north London. He was frustrated by the lack of books of interest to boys, especially those with poor reading skills.

Mr Blum said: “In working with children with special educational needs, the biggest frustration over the past six years has been the lack of suitable material. This book is a subversive alternative to the boring National Literacy Strategy progress units.”

The Chelsea Bunny is about a stuffed rabbit who is brought to life by a whisky-drinking mechanic but is confined to the toy box after trying to smash his way into a television set to attack Arsenal fans.

He is discovered in the box by a teacher, Jennifer Wilkinson, when she visits the garage, and takes him as a pupil at her boarding school along with other dysfunctional and unlucky toys, including a gambling hedgehog and a sickly tiger.

The over-excitable Chelsea Bunny gambles, shouts and headbutts walls. But he learns the importance of reading when he is sold dud FA cup final tickets. He later has to rescue his pals when the dodgy ticket touts then parade them as Millwall mascots.

“The Chelsea Bunny is an antihero with a heart of gold,” said Mr Blum. “It’s all tongue-in-cheek, a satire of boys’ macho behaviour. He talks in the way boys talk to each other. He certainly does not speak the Queen’s English.”

Each chapter is a lesson and includes comprehension and vocabulary-building exercises.

Mr Blum, who has also written teachers’ books on behaviour management, developed the characters and themes in the book while he was head of learning support at Raine’s foundation school in Tower Hamlets, east London.

The book was funded by the Excellence in Cities initiative and illustrated by pupils at Raine’s school.

This year’s English test scores for 14-year-olds show almost a quarter of boys are still working at the level expected from 11-year-olds. And a further 5 per cent, or 30,000 boys, were below this standard.

“The Chelsea Bunny” is published by Learning Design, 020 7093 4051. pound;10+pound;2 pamp;p, ISBN 1-903616-18. Order at www.learningdesign.biz