Gentle Giant - Softcover

Morpurgo M.B.E., Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007111924 ISBN 13: 9780007111923

Publisher: HarperCollins UK, 2004

Synopsis

On a small island way out in the middle of a silver lake there once lived a sad young man. He was sad because he had grown up into a giant of a man, very big, very strong, and very frightening. Because of this, no one liked to go near him. So his only friends were the wild creatures that lived all around him. Then one day, he saves a girl from drowning, and little does he know how she is going to change his life forever. Michael Morpurgo draws on traditional storytelling to weave a tale of extraordinary relevance to our own world today. A story of compassion, and love, and a simple belief in the healing powers of nature.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Morpurgo OBE is one of Britain's best-loved writers for children, and has sold more than 35 million books around the world. He has written more than 150 novels and won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Award and the Blue Peter Book Award, while several of his books have been adapted for stage and screen, including the global theatrical phenomenon War Horse. Michael was Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005, and founded the charity Farms for City Children with his wife, Clare. He was knighted in 2018 for services to literature and charity.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 4-In true fairy-tale fashion replete with drama, romance, and redemption, a master storyteller conveys a timely (and timeless), compelling message about the frightening fragility of our environment, the awesome and restorative powers of nature, and the often-unconsidered consequences of an all-too-pervasive, superficial, "gotta-have-it-now" mentality. Lonely, unloved, and misunderstood, the gentle Beastman of Ballyloch lives alone on an island in his beloved silver lake, in harmony with the birds and animals, but reviled by the human inhabitants of the town, where he toils each day thatching houses, barns, and hayricks. As is so often the case in tales of this type, what lies beneath the sad young man's off-putting exterior is a person who is fine and untouched by anger or resentment. A brave and selfless act of kindness is the catalyst for a friendship, and this, coupled with his imposed intimacy with simple, natural elements, supplies the quiet Beastman with the information and intuition necessary to remedy an ecological upset that threatens the survival of all of Ballyloch. Foreman's pebbled watercolor-and-pencil pictures are jewel toned and as gentle and touching as the story itself, and their composition hints at the possibilities of reaching beyond boundaries-physical or figurative. This is an unassuming story with a powerful punch and a resonant reminder: "There's truth in every fairy tale."-Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0007111924
• ISBN 13: 9780007111923
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Foreman Michael