An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo. Pub.HarperCollins, 2010.

It is always a privilege to read a Michael Morpurgo novel and this is my first children’s novel for the new year.

As always it is stunning and shows a great undersatanding of the human psyche particularly during war time and in the way they react to animals.

The story is set in Dresden in world war two just before the Allies bombed it into oblivion. Lizzie is 16 her brther Karli is 8 or 9 and their mother(Mutti) works at Dresden zoo. Mutti becomes apprehensive as to what will become of the animals as the Allies begin to squeeze Hitler’s germany into submission.

Of particular concern to Mutti was Marlene, a 4 year old elephant named after the singer/actress Marlene Dietrich. As the bombers fly over Dresden to deliver their deadly cargo Mutti, Lizzie and Karli are trying to catch Marlene who has headed for the woods to chase a dog. Oh what luck, Dresden is flattened and scores of refugees pour out the city into the countryside.

Mutti, Lizzie, Karli and Marlene head across country to their uncles farm and so begins an odyssy that will see out the end of the war. And then they meet Peter!!

Read the rest it is a brilliant story for middle school and intermediate school students. Michael Morpurgo never disappoints.

Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo

Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo. Pub. HarperCollins, 2009

When the tsunami hit Indonesia on Boxing Day 2004, Will a 9 year old British boy, was sitting on top of Oona, an Asian elephant, walking along the beach. Oona sensed that something was wrong and took off into the jungle and kept going for days.

What follows is an amazing story of survival in which Will comes to rely on Oona for his survival and three orang-utan babies depend on Will for theirs.

Will travels around the dense Indonesian rainforest for nearly a year and his story is beautifully told by Michael Morpurgo in his unique style. Morpurgo’s  knowledge of the wildlife and plantlife of the rainforest ecosystem is inspirational. Nobody does it better.

Morpurgo links Will’s survival with the world wide plight of the rainforest habitat with Will encountering heartless smugglers of orang-utans, and those that destroy their habitat to grow palm oil trees.

This is a conservation story with Morpurgo pulling no punches as to scale of the rainforest destruction, the plight of the remaining orang-utans  and where the blame should lie.

The story of Will, Oona and the orang-utans is exciting and uplifting and the ending will melt your heart.

It is a long book, over 350 pages, but is an easy read for children from 9-16 years old. If you have never read a Michael Morpurgo novel before do yourself a favour and read this one.