Ralph, Jack and Peterkin find themselves the sole survivors of a shipwreck on a deserted coral island in the South Pacific. Although fate has led them to temporary safety, the three marooned lads are forced to carve out a life for themselves from what nature provides. They rapidly learn which fruit to eat, which animals to hunt, and which lagoons are best for bathing. Resourceful as they are, their desert island idyll is often disturbed and they face numerous terrifying threats - pirates, sharks, cannibalism and local tribes among them. Amidst all the chaos, the trio still face the riddle of how to engineer their rescue from their tropical exile. Following in Robinson Crusoe's footsteps, and yet with added adventure, Ballantyne's writing is a classic adored by previous generations of children and which deserves to be discovered all over again by a modern audience.

 

There are 366 pages in this book. This book was published 2013 by Hesperus Press Ltd .

Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in Scotland in 1825. As a young man he went to Canada to work as a clerk with the Hudson Bay Fur Company. His experiences gave him lots of ideas for his career as a writer, artist and lecturer when he returned to Scotland. His best known for his novel The Coral Island which has remained in print since its first publication in 1857. He died in 1894. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS is John Boyne's first book for children. He is 33 years old, lives in Dublin and is a full-time writer. He was writer-in-residence at the University of East Anglia on the MA in Creative Writing course and spent many years working as a bookseller.