If any teachers would like to cover Hotel Grimm as a class text, a free novel study guide is now available. The guide has been written and designed by Natalie Mack, DHT at Lasswade Primary School, Midlothian and is hot off the press in September 2026. We’re keen to hear teachers’ feedback from using it in 2026/27, so that a future version can be shaped by experience in the classroom.
The Hotel Grimm guide sets out how the book can be used to meet specific Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland) Learning Outcomes for Listening and Talking, Reading, Writing, Health and Wellbeing, Literature and Expressive Arts as well as certain outcomes from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
After that, the guide shows how Hotel Grimm can be divided over 6 weeks, with chapter summaries and learning activities for each weekly block.
Finally, Mike provides background information on the bigger themes of the book, including prejudice and fake news, explaining the story’s origins in people judging others wrongly on first appearances without having all the facts. Mike also answers some FAQs about his approach to writing and some of the things that shaped the theme, setting and characters in Hotel Grimm.
There’s a bonus opportunity for classes reading Hotel Grimm to have contact with Mike as they go through the story. This is a great way of making a class text come to life even more through contact with the author.
One teacher who has used Hotel Grimm in the past explains why it works as a class text:
“We have used Grimm (now edited and relaunched as Hotel Grimm) for many years as a class reader…a wonderfully intricate mystery involving fake news, relevant now more than ever. The humour and fast-paced action keep the story moving at pace. The characters launch fully-formed off the page and inhabit the classroom, giving rise to endless questions for discussion: What is fake news? Why is marketing so effective? How do we treat people with disability? Have we ever done something we’ve regretted? Do we really know our own grandparents? And how easy is it to misjudge other people? The story keeps you guessing up to the end, where everything dovetails nicely and you realise just how carefully the story has been pieced together.”
– Jack Jackman, Junior School Teacher, Loretto School