The Wreck of the Zanzibar

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The child in the story has a bond with a turtle around half-way through the book and I couldn't help wondering whether this was the beginning of Morpurgo's slight obsession of child-animal partnerships.

They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. Laura's father, a harsh and taciturn man, has turned his son Billy against island life with his incessant demands.We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. A son and grandson of actors, Michael has acting in his blood and enjoys collaborating and performing live adaptations of his books at festivals, concerts and theatres.

He has won numerous awards including those voted for by children themselves, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Children’s Book Award. I loved the way in which Michael Morpurgo wrote the story, reading Laura's diary entries I felt that it was more personal and carried a lot more emotion. However, the author keeps the characters very real and as a reader, I felt very involved in their lives.Teachers frequently comment that a child can learn more in a week on the farm than a year in the classroom. Though it is a short little story, I find it an immense pleasure to read even now, I am all grown up. He travels all over the UK and abroad talking to people of all ages at literary festivals, telling his stories and encouraging them to tell theirs. Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. They have four milking cows,enough to keep the entire population of the island supplied with milk, and the islanders feed themselves from the sea.

To touch the lives of children, to witness their listening and reading silence, is reward enough in itself. As bleak as Laura's days are, she is gentle enough to protect a sea turtle which might otherwise serve as food, and hopeful enough to dream of rowing in the island gig despite repeated declarations that a girl will never be allowed to handle one of the oars.Written as a diary entry - I like the idea of doing up the classroom like a set from the book and using maps to find out where the Scilly Isles are and what they look like. He has an unerring moral compass – his schoolteacher past has never quite left him – and books such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion have a strong social concience and an honesty that makes them universal. He has written more than 150 novels and won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Award and the Blue Peter Book Award, while several of his books have been adapted for stage and screen, including the global theatrical phenomenon War Horse. His latest book is Boy Giant published by Harper Collins Children’s Books and Owl or Pussycat illustrated by Polly Dunbar and published by David Fickling Books.