Kensuke's Kingdom
by Michael Morpurgo
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When Michael is swept off his family's yacht, he washes up on a desert island, where he struggles to survive--until he finds he is not alone.Tags
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Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo is an children’s adventure story about 11 year old Michael and his dog, Stella who are washed overboard and end up on a desert island in the Pacific during a family trip in the 1980’s. There is one other human on the island, an elderly Japanese man who looks after Michael but doesn’t seem to want him to try to catch the attention of any passing boat or do anything that could perhaps end in Michael’s rescue and reunion with his mother and father.
At first Michael is bitterly angry at Kensuke’s attitude but life on the island has its own gentle rhythm that eventually finds Michael and Kensuke bonding as they fish, paint and play football together. Kensuke tells Michael his story of how he show more ended up on the island. Kensuke eventually realizes that Michael is too young to be stranded on the island the rest of his life so the two build a signal fire and through their conversations, Michael is sure that Kensuke will come off the island with him. But when rescue finally arrives, Kensuke elects to stay on the island as he feels responsible for protecting the orangutans and other wildlife that are to be found there.
My granddaughter read this book for school and wasn’t particularly taken with it and as I knew this author and love survival stories, I decided to read it for myself. I can understand why she wasn’t enthralled by the book as there wasn’t a lot of action or humor in the story, both elements of which she looks for. This is a book to bring an awareness of the environment to the young and as such, I thought the author did a fine job. I enjoyed the book with its simple language and quiet understated story. show less
At first Michael is bitterly angry at Kensuke’s attitude but life on the island has its own gentle rhythm that eventually finds Michael and Kensuke bonding as they fish, paint and play football together. Kensuke tells Michael his story of how he show more ended up on the island. Kensuke eventually realizes that Michael is too young to be stranded on the island the rest of his life so the two build a signal fire and through their conversations, Michael is sure that Kensuke will come off the island with him. But when rescue finally arrives, Kensuke elects to stay on the island as he feels responsible for protecting the orangutans and other wildlife that are to be found there.
My granddaughter read this book for school and wasn’t particularly taken with it and as I knew this author and love survival stories, I decided to read it for myself. I can understand why she wasn’t enthralled by the book as there wasn’t a lot of action or humor in the story, both elements of which she looks for. This is a book to bring an awareness of the environment to the young and as such, I thought the author did a fine job. I enjoyed the book with its simple language and quiet understated story. show less
I read this for the second or third time for my book club and loved it all over again. I love Michael Morpurgo's style of writing: descriptive, attentive to the details of the natural world with well-developed characters and plot, and strong themes of friendship, self-growth, and the horrors of war. Everyone in the club loved it, too. Some of my favorite parts are Kensuke's words of wisdom to Michael, such as, when Michael looks always toward the future of rescue instead of enjoying his present friendship and learning with the elder: "Life must not be spent always hoping, always waiting. Life is for living." I also love how Kensuke is content with his own company and the company of wild companions, the orangutans. He has his art, his show more routines, his purpose of protecting the wildlife, and a good place to call home, however humble it may seem. My favorite chapter is "All that silence said" because I so appreciate and resonate with the beauty and wisdom of silence. Silence taught Michael friendship, caring, patience and painting and silence has so much more to teach all of us. show less
his poignant adventure story begins in England in 1988 and ends halfway around the globe in a place that will change the 11-year-old protagonist forever. After losing his job, Michael's father surprises the family by purchasing a yacht in which they will sail around the world. In the first weeks at sea, Michael, his parents, and his dog, Stella, zigzag from England to Australia and across the Coral Sea, where Michael's reverie comes to a frightening end. In the middle of the night, he and Stella are swept overboard in a fierce storm, and he later awakens on an island beach. The island is a hostile jungle full of howling gibbons, voracious mosquitoes, and brutal heat, all of which challenge his ability to survive. Yet when he finds fresh show more 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 from an uneasy detente to a deep friendship.
What might have been just a gritty tale of survival evolves into a gentle parable about trust, compassion, love, and hope. Morpurgo avoids the stereotypes that characterize Taylor's novel, focusing, instead, on developing a touching relationship between Kensuke, who has been without human company for 40 years, and Michael, who learns to love the old man yet still longs for home. The end is bittersweet but believable, and the epilogue is a sad commentary on the long-lasting effects of war. show less
What might have been just a gritty tale of survival evolves into a gentle parable about trust, compassion, love, and hope. Morpurgo avoids the stereotypes that characterize Taylor's novel, focusing, instead, on developing a touching relationship between Kensuke, who has been without human company for 40 years, and Michael, who learns to love the old man yet still longs for home. The end is bittersweet but believable, and the epilogue is a sad commentary on the long-lasting effects of war. show less
This book surprised me with its beautiful imagery, as the author helps us clearly visualize every setting and event. It also contains a variety of extended metaphors and intriguing symbolism, often affected through creative imagery and the use of words with dual meanings. The themes of man versus nature and man versus self were wonderfully portrayed on every page. This story is also a coming of age story for Michael, reminiscent in some ways of a Greek myth. There is loss, temptation, and obstacles that are both internal and external. The story is written from Michael’s point of view, allowing the reader to have full insight into his thoughts and feelings at every pivotal moment. To be honest, I was a little frustrated by the irony in show more the postscript, and the fact that some mysteries are never solved (such as what was causing the strange stomach illness experienced by Michael’s mother). But overall, I loved this book and would recommend it highly for the middle school reader. It is a fast read, with lots of action, and its wonderful imagery and metaphors could easily serve as the focal point of a language arts discussion. Also, there is an excellent lesson in problem solving embedded into the manner in which Michael processes and handles his dilemmas. show less
My son is reading this book at school with his class and I decided to read it as well as he said he would like to be able to discuss it with me because he found it so exciting, I love to read a Michael Morpurgo book every now and again as I love his writing and one of my favourite books by Michael Morpurgo is [b: Private Peaceful|1048645|Private Peaceful|Michael Morpurgo|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180500913s/1048645.jpg|2454980] so was quite happy to read Kensuke's Kingdom.
The story is about Michael a twelve year old boy who gets washed up on an island in the pacific, Michael struggles to survive as he learns the ways of the Island but he is not alone...
Kensuke's Kingdom is a lovely book and a great adventure story, I love the show more fact that in such a subtle way and without a child even realising it they learn so much from this book as throughout the story there are lots of interesting facts and information. I also love the emotions in this book and think it has wonderful discussion topics for children.
A great Children's story and I am looking forward to reading more of Michael Morpurgo books. show less
The story is about Michael a twelve year old boy who gets washed up on an island in the pacific, Michael struggles to survive as he learns the ways of the Island but he is not alone...
Kensuke's Kingdom is a lovely book and a great adventure story, I love the show more fact that in such a subtle way and without a child even realising it they learn so much from this book as throughout the story there are lots of interesting facts and information. I also love the emotions in this book and think it has wonderful discussion topics for children.
A great Children's story and I am looking forward to reading more of Michael Morpurgo books. show less
Ostensibly a book for children, "Kensuke's Kingdom" is a rather more mature account of a young cast-away on a Pacific island. He meets the eponymous 'hero' of the story, a Japanese soldier left behind by the war.
The book is at times thrilling and moving, and the story of Kensuke's sorry history and the reasons for his dislike of visitors to the island is effectively told; the book's greatest weakness is my own rather than its: I am too old to fully appreciate it for what it is. Had I read this as a young adolescent I would remember it as fondly as I do "The Neverending Story."
The book is at times thrilling and moving, and the story of Kensuke's sorry history and the reasons for his dislike of visitors to the island is effectively told; the book's greatest weakness is my own rather than its: I am too old to fully appreciate it for what it is. Had I read this as a young adolescent I would remember it as fondly as I do "The Neverending Story."
A very beautiful story about how a young boy escapes poverty on a sailing boat with his family, then gets swept overboard with his dog. He wakes on a deserted island only to find that he is not alone. A interesting look into the thought patterns of a boy trying to get back to his parents. The relationship that evolves from controller to father figure with the gentle but stubborn Kensuke. I love the description of how he paints. Building a friendship around silence. Beautiful.
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Author Information
300+ Works 31,661 Members
British author Michael Morpurgo was born in St. Albans, Hertforshire in 1943. He attended the University of London and studied English and French. He became a primary school teacher in Kent for about ten years. He and his wife Clare started a charity called Farms for City Children. They currently own three farms where over 2000 children a year show more stay for a week and experience the countryside by taking part in purposeful farmwork. He has published over 100 books and several screenplays. He won the 1995 Whitbread Children's Book Award for The Wreck of the Zanzibar, the 1996 Nestle Smarties Book Prize for The Butterfly Lion, and the 2000 Children's Book Award for Kensuke's Kingdom. Private Peaceful won the 2005 Red House Children's Book Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Five of his books have been made into movies and two have been adapted for television. He was named as the third Children's Laureate in May 2003. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Kensuke's Kingdom
- Original title
- Kensuke's Kingdom
- Original publication date
- 1999
- People/Characters
- Michael; Stella Artois (Border Collie); Kensuke Ogawa
- Important places
- South Pacific Ocean; Pacific Ocean
- Dedication
- For Graham and Isabella. My thanks to Isabella Hutchins, Terence Buckler, and Professor Seigo Tonimoto and his family, for all their kind help with this book.
- First words
- I disappeared on the night before my twelfth birthday.
- Quotations
- At school I had never been much good at writing. I could never think of what to write or how to begin. But on the Peggy Sue I found I could open up my log and just write. There was always so much I wanted to say. And that's t... (show all)he thing. I found I didn't really write it down at all. Rather, I said it. I spoke it from my head, down my arm, through my fingers and my pencil, and onto the page. And that's how it reads to me now, all these years later, like me talking. (p. 23)
I still dream of the elephants in South Africa. I loved how slow they are, how thoughtful. I loved their wise, weepy eyes. (p. 34-35)
Even then as I stood there, that first morning, filled with apprehension at the terrifying implications of my dreadful situation, I remember thinking how wonderful it was, a green jewel of an island framed in white, the sea a... (show all)ll around it a silken shimmering blue. Strangely, perhaps comforted somehow by the extraordinary beauty of the place, I was not at all downhearted. On the contrary I felt strangely elated. I was alive. (p. 50)
In the dying light of each day he would sit beside me and watch over me, the last of the evening sun on his face. I felt as if he were healing me with his eyes. (p. 102 in the chapter "All That Silence Said")
I had always liked to draw, but from Kensuke I learned to love it, that to draw or paint I first had to observe well, then set out the form of the picture in my head and send it down my arm through the tip of the brush and on... (show all)to the shell. He taught me all this entirely without speaking. He simply showed me. (p. 108-9)
Life must not be spent always hoping, always waiting. Life is for living. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He laughs just like his father did.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Kids, Children's Books
- DDC/MDS
- 823.914 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 1901-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PZ7 .M82712 .K — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Juvenile belles lettres
- BISAC
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- ISBNs
- 58
- ASINs
- 24