Book Info
Loading other formats...Format
Paperback96 pages
Interest Age: from 9 to 11
Reading Age: from 9 to 11
Author's Website
www.michaelmorpurgo.com/Illustrated By
Michael ForemanPublisher
Corgi Childrens an imprint of Random House Children's Publishers UKPublication date
2nd January 2003ISBN
9780440865070Children's Author 'Like-for-Like' recommendations
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The Last Wolf
Written by:
Michael Morpurgo
Illustrated by:
Michael Foreman
This title is in stock
Lovereading4kids Price: £3.74
RRP: £4.99 Saving £1.25 (25%)Synopsis
The Last Wolf by Michael MorpurgoMichael Morpurgo has created a sweeping and dramatic story in the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie. This spellbinding tale is complemented perfectly by Michael Foreman's illustrations. Robbie McLeod and a wolf cub, both orphaned, venture far from their birthplace, a land of rebellious fighters and vicious redcoats. There is little constancy in Robbie's adventurous life, save for the companionship of his wolf. But when at last Robbie finds a place where he can peacefully make his home, he knows in his heart that the wolf must find his own natural home too...
Reviews
Confined to bed by illness, Michael McLeod is taught by his granddaughter Miya to use the internet, and starts to research his family history. He soon meets an American relative online, and she sends him the life story written by their ancestor Robbie McLeod, who left Scotland for America after Bonnie Prince Charlie's failed rebellion in 1745. Robbie's story is an exciting one. Orphaned as a baby, he passed a wretched childhood then found brief happiness with the Dunbars. But when Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard they went to fight for him, and after the disastrous battle of Culloden Robbie left his foster-father dying of wounds and fled to the Highlands to escape King George's soldiers. There, lonely and frightened, he meets an orphaned wolfcub, Charlie, whom he adopts. Together they journey across the sea to America, where Robbie makes a new life to himself and, sadly but ungrudgingly, watches Charlie leave him to find his own new life among his kind. This is a satisfying story, beautifully told and with the contemporary framing sections linking Robbie's tale to the present day. Morpurgo perfectly captures the 18th-century style in Robbie's writing without making it in any way inaccessible. Michael Foreman's illustrations complement the story exactly and his pictures of the vast mountains of the Highlands and terrifying storms at sea add drama and excitement. This is an excellent introduction to a sad period in Scottish history and its effect on those who lived through it. Ages 8+ (Kirkus UK)About The Author
Michael Morpurgo was our Guest Editor in June 2010. Click here to see the books that inspired his writing.
Michael Morpurgo has written over one hundred books and won many awards. In 1976 Michael and his wife Clare started the charity Farms For City Children, which aims to relieve the poverty of experience of young children from inner city and urban areas. In 1999 they were awarded the MBE for their work in creating these farms and in 2006 Michael received an OBE.
His novel War Horse has been adapted into a hugely successful and critically acclaimed West End play and a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Michael is a tireless champion for children’s books and was formerly the Children’s Laureate. Loved by children, teachers and parents alike, Michael Morpurgo has 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.
Anthony Horowitz on Michael Morpurgo:
'Michael Morpurgo is the most solid, classical of children's authors. He sits outside the series-driven blockbusters so beloved of publishers nowadays: he hasn't created a Harry Potter or an Alex Rider – and I admire him for resisting that. We are opposite sides of the same coin and, although his work has never influenced mine, I admire the eloquent, considered voice of his best books. He has an unerring moral compass – his schoolteacher past has never quite left him – and books such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion have a strong social concience and an honesty that makes them universal.' (The Guardian)
Why not CLICK HERE to take a peek at Michael’s 10 Rules for Writing.
or Click here to read a Q&A with the author from top children's publisher Egmont.
Michael is the inaugural President of the Historical Writers Association starting from Autumn 2011. The Historical Writers' Association (www.thehwa.co.uk) will celebrate its first anniversary in October. It was founded to bring social and professional support to writers of historical fiction and non-fiction, publishers, agents and booksellers, all bound both by their common interest in historical books and by the sense of community that comes from a shared obsession.
Since its creation, the Historical Writers' Association has launched the first Festival of Historical Writing in association with English Heritage as part of their Festival of History at Kelmarsh in Northamptonshire this July. In September, a partnership was announced with Goldsboro Books to launch a new literary prize, the HWA/Goldsboro Crown for Debut Historical Fiction, the first of which will be presented at Goldsboro's History in the Court Festival next year on 27th September 2012.
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