Before the Steven Spielberg film, before the National Theatre production, there was the classic children''s novel - War Horse.From the nation''s favourite storyteller, Michael Morpurgo.
In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both sides of the trenches. Bombarded by artillery, with bullets knocking riders from his back, Joey tells a powerful story of the truest friendships surviving in terrible times. One horse has the seen the best and the worst of humanity. The power of war and the beauty of peace. This is his story. War Horse was adapted by Steven Spielberg as a major motion picture with Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The National Theatre production opened in 2007 and has enjoyed successful runs in the West End and on Broadway.
A great way of introducing young readers to the realities of WWI. Look out for Morpurgo''s other war fiction including Friend or Foe, Waiting for Anya, King of the Cloud Forests and An Eagle in the Snow.
War Horse is a story of universal suffering for a universal audience by a writer who ''has the happy knack of speaking to both child and adult readers'' (The Guardian).
Michael Morpurgo has written more than one hundred books for children and won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children''s Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times.
Heroism or cowardice? A stunning story of the First World War from a master storyteller
''Full of warmth as well as grief, conveying vividly how precious it is to be alive'' Sunday Times
As young Thomas Peaceful looks back over his childhood from the battlefields of the First World War, his memories are full of family life deep in the countryside. But the clock is ticking, and every moment Tommo spends remembering how things used to be, means another moment closer to something that will change his life for ever.
A lyrical and moving tale of a young boy growing up in Africa, and his lifelong friendship with a white lion, from a master storyteller ''Will touch all hearts - both young and old'' Virginia McKenna, Born Free Foundation When Bertie rescues an orphaned white lion cub from the African veld, the pair are inseparable - until Bertie is sent to boarding school far away in England and the lion is sold to a circus.
Bertie swears that one day they will see one another again, but it is the butterfly lion which ensures that their friendship will never be forgotten.
Adventure storiesA brand new edition with a beautiful and fresh new cover, featuring a dramatic new pho photographic cover, with highlighted tonal colours. This is one of Morpurgo's best-loved stories. Ages 9+
Adventure storiesGracie and Daniel have always been warned to stay away from the Birdman. But they soon discover that he is not who they thought. Should they believe him when he says the island is cursed? Find out in this brand new edition of a Michael Morpurgo favourite. Ages: 8+
Fiction/Life skills & personal awareness, general studiesMichael Morpurgo's inspiring new story of Robbie, a boy in a coma after a car accident. Locked inside his own head, able to hear but not move or speak, he tries to keep himself from slipping deeper into unconsciousness...
When Yannick learns that he is to stay with his Aunt Mathilde in the South of France, he cannot believe his luck. If the paintings of his mother's beloved Cezanne are to be believed, surely Provence is paradise itself. So begins an idyllic month for the young boy: roaming the gentle hills and rolling valleys of Aix-en-Provence, daydreaming about his beautiful cousin Amandine; helping in his aunt and uncle's bustling village inn;
A moving tale of secrets and survival bound together by the power of music, from a master storyteller. When Lesley is sent to Venice to interview world-renowned violinist Paulo Levi on his fiftieth birthday, she cannot believe her luck. She is told that she can ask him anything at all - except the Mozart question. But it is Paulo himself who decides that it is time for the truth to be told. And so follows the story of his parents as Jewish prisoners of war, forced to play Mozart violin concerti for the enemy; how they watched fellow Jews being led off to their deaths and knew that they were playing for their lives. As the story unfolds, the journalist begins to understand the full horror of war, and how one group of musicians survived using the only weapon they had - music.
A moving historical story inspired by the Foundling Museum, written by acclaimed children's author Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Michael Foreman.
Wombat loves digging deep holes and thinking deep thoughts, but nobody thinks much of that until danger threatens the bush and the small wombat comes up with a great big idea.
