Michael Morpurgo has written so, so many children's books. Many have been made into theatre productions and films and are now seen as being "classics."
When I started this website the idea was to direct children/parents to new authors that they might not have come across before... which is why I have ignored Michael Morpurgo, by far the most well known "serious" children's author so far. But as my site grows it becomes even stranger not to have at least one Morpurgo book on it... and I would hate children to focus on books on my site and never try several of his stories. So, here you go, I recently devoured his latest book and review it here....
Listen to The Moon is set in the Scilly Isles during World War 1. It is the story of a girl, found alone and nearly dead on a deserted island. She is cared for, and loved, by a fisherman's family but, in war time, emotions are very high and not many of the other islanders like having this stranger around.. thinking that she could even be a German spy.
Like many Michael Morpurgo books this is quite upsetting in places, it certainly makes you think about how horrible people can be to someone who is different, someone they don't know. It also teaches a little about events in World War 1.
"The stunning new novel of World War One from Michael Morpurgo, the nation’s favourite storyteller and multi-million copy bestseller. May, 1915. Alfie and his fisherman father find a girl on an uninhabited island in the Scillies - injured, thirsty, lost…and with absolutely no memory of who she is, or how she came to be there. She can say only one word: Lucy. Where has she come from? Is she a mermaid, the victim of a German U-boat, or even - as some islanders suggest - a German spy…? Only one thing is for sure: she loves music and moonlight, and it is when she listens to the gramophone that the glimmers of the girl she once was begin to appear. WW1 is raging, suspicion and fear are growing, and Alfie and Lucy are ever more under threat. But as we begin to see the story of Merry, a girl boarding a great ship for a perilous journey across the ocean, another melody enters the great symphony - and the music begins to resolve…A beautiful tour de force of family, love, war and forgiveness, this is a major new novel from the author of PRIVATE PEACEFUL - in which what was once lost may sometimes be found, washed up again on the shore…‘A fantastic story whose pieces come together like a huge jigsaw puzzle. It’s brilliantly written and both happy and sad. I loved it!’ Lovereading4kids
‘Trenches. A single word that seems to represent World War One. ‘Listen to the Moon’ tells the story of the other side of the war, the fight for homeland survival.’ Lovereading4kids
“It is a story of love and loss, of family and community fractured by war, of the power of hope, and above all of the will of the human spirit to survive.” Michael Morpurgo