A gripping children's story from War Horse author and former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo. "We all knew what was going to happen. We'd seen it before. A ship about to founder staggers before she falls. A huge wave broke over her stern and she did not come upright again." Life on the Scilly Isles in 1907 is bleak and full of hardship. Laura's twin brother, Billy, disappears, and then a storm devastates everything. It seems there's little hope. But then the Zanzibar is wrecked on the island's rocks, and everything changes . . . The Wreck of the Zanzibar is a gripping historical adventure from the author of An Eagle in the Snow, Listen to the Moon, Shadow, and An Elephant in the Garden. Michael Morpurgo is the master storyteller of such modern classic children's books as War Horse, Friend or Foe, Private Peaceful, and Kensuke's Kingdom. He 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.
This book has been graded for interest at 10-13 years.
There are 112 pages in this book. This book was published 2011 by Egmont UK Ltd (eBooks) .
Michael Morpurgo has brought together poems by writers as diverse as Spike Milligan and Stevie Smith, John Lennon and Jo Shapcott.
This book contains the following story:
The Wreck of the Zanzibar
Laura Perryman lives on Bryher, one of the Scilly isles with her twin brother, Billy, and her mother and father and her Granny May. They have four milking cows, and of course, a fishing boat. Billy is fourteen years old and bored with the unending milking routine so when the General Lee, bound for New York, calls at St. Mary's for repairs to the mizzen mast Billy secures his passage as a cabin boy. He has left the islands before his parents know anything about it. Laura has lost her twin brother and is devastated. So are her parents. Then ill fortune besets the family, and a storm devastates everything on the island. Things seem hopeless until the Zanzibar is wrecked on the island's rocks, and suddenly everything changes . . .
This book has been nominated for the following awards:
Whitbread Book Award
This book was recognised by the Whitbread Book Award.
Whitbread Book Award
This book was recognised in the Children's Book category by the Whitbread Book Award.
Children's Book Award
This book was recognised by the Children's Book Award.
