Looking at secular books

Sarah Allen  |  Features  |  Secular Shelf Life
Date posted:  1 Mar 2007
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If you have primary school age children, or grandchildren, if you are a listener to Radio 4 or involved in the teaching profession then I’m sure you will have come across the name of Michael Morpurgo.

For those of you who have not heard the name, then may I introduce you to the foremost children’s writer of our age? He has published over 100 works since the mid 70s, has won all the prizes available for children’s literature, been Children’s Laureate (from 2003-5) had works made into major films and presented a brilliant series, The Invention of Childhood on Radio Four. He and his wife also run a charity Farms For City Children. It is certainly difficult to be critical of the hard working fellow.

Fast moving

Morpurgo’s works are always fast moving and adventurous; as so often in children’s literature a child is isolated from what is familiar and secure and has to battle against great adversity to reach new safety. The writing is always confident and fluent and the settings are superb; at bedtimes my children have been transported to the Dunkirk beaches, to the Spanish Civil War, to the Trenches of the Somme, to pre-war Africa, to the Scilly Isles and the Pacific. Towards the end of a story, my boys will groan and ask, ‘Are you crying again, Mummy?’!

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