Avoca National School – S.N. Phádraig Naofa

Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

02/05/2012

   Our Star Rating:   5 stars

A young boy called Michael, travels with his parents around the world on a yacht after his parents lose their jobs and  decide to sail the seven seas.    He is on lookout one night when Michael and his dog are washed overboard. They awake to discover that they are stranded on a desert island.

The island is a hostile jungle full of howling gibbons, voracious mosquitoes, and  searing heat, all of which challenge his ability to survive. Yet when he finds fresh water and food mysteriously laid out for him each morning, he realizes that he is not alone. He soon comes face-to-face with Kensuke, an old Japanese soldier who cautiously protects Michael in spite of the boy’s dogged determination to build a bonfire that will signal potential rescuers, defying Kensuke’s wish that the outside world never learn of his existence on the island. For nearly a year, the man and boy help each other, moving to a deep friendship. What might have been just a  tale of survival evolves into a gentle story about trust, compassion, love, and hope.

We LOVED this book.  Some of our readers even said they think it was the ‘Best Book Club Book so far’.     This is a pretty small book and so we thought it would be a very quick read but we were very surprised at the amount of detail the writer packed into the story.   It really held our attention.  They felt it was split into two halves – fantastic story line but then it had a number of areas in the story that were very far fetched, even though this book wasn’t ‘ fantasy’.    They all agreed that it was so good that the writer got away with that, and they loved the way he completed the ending.

Entry Filed under: Book Club. .