Farm Boy - Softcover

Morpurgo M.B.E., Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843650908 ISBN 13: 9781843650904

Publisher: Anova Children's Books, 2007

Synopsis

The sequel to War Horse from an award-winning author and master storyteller  Set on a farm in rural Devon, Farm Boy is a collection of Grandpa's reminiscences and stories touchingly told to his grandson. Joey was the last working horse on the farm, and the apple of Grandpa's eye. Joey was sent away from the farm to be a warhorse in WWI. Grandpa had joined the cavalry in order to find, and fight, with Joey. Farm Boy brings us forward fifty years with Grandpa not only telling his grandson Joey's story but also a "shameful secret" which he has held for years—Grandpa has never learned to read and write. The story is set in Iddesleigh in Devon and lovingly evokes the bonds between farm and farmer, grandson and grandfather. This special new edition superbly captures the spirit of rural life.

About this title

From the Author:

Michael Morpurgo, the former UK Children's Laureate, has written more than 40 books 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. His books include Kensuke's Kingdom, Private Peaceful, and War Horse, which is the basis of a Broadway play and a film by Steven Spielberg.

From Publishers Weekly:

Following their Robin of Sherwood and Arthur, High King of Britain, Morpurgo and Foreman turn their talents to historical fiction about the Maid of Orl?ans. Morpurgo frames his chronicle of Joan of Arc within a contemporary story about Eloise, a 17-year-old French girl who has set her heart on playing Joan in the annual tableaux in Orl?ans, where Eloise's family has just moved. When Eloise narrowly loses a contest to portray Joan, she seeks the solace of the sparrow she has befriended down by the river. There a voice from on high ("from deep inside the light, deep inside the silence") tells her the complete story of Joan of Arc, including Joan's lifelong companionship with a white sparrow ("He was her best friend on this earth"). Told in smooth, expansive chapters, the narrative skirts some of the more searching questions about Joan's voices and vocation (such as those raised in Diane Stanley's recent picture-book biography, Joan of Arc) and accepts Joan's religious visions at face value. Indeed, with the introductions of a supernatural narrator and of a sparrow that enjoys an almost mystical relationship with Joan, Morpurgo signals that his storytelling is premised on faith. Foreman, too, adopts only the look of realism. His deceptively sunny palette offsets the often brutal matter of the narrative, and his familiar, informal, representational style balances his allusions to religious imagery. If the work is not as provocative as Stanley's, its polish and panoramic scope will lure and hold readers. Ages 9-14. (Mar.) contemporary story set in Devon and focusing on a storytelling grandfather and his grandson (Pavilion [Trafalgar, dist.], $16.95 paper 80p ages 7-10 ISBN 1-86205-192-5; Mar.).
-, $16.95 paper 80p ages 7-10 ISBN 1-86205-192-5; Mar.).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Anova Children's Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1843650908
• ISBN 13: 9781843650904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 76
• Illustrator: Foreman Michael