I love reading, and so I thought that I would write a book review on one of my newest reads- Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo. Morpurgo is a famous children's author, and most of his books are about World War 2. He was born in 1943, and his first book was published in 1971. Since then, he has written many books, including The Butterfly Lion, Friend or Foe and Kensuke's Kingdom. I recommend all of these books, but the one that I am reviewing today is called Running Wild, a story about love, hope, and courage.
 |
| Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo |
"The sea murmured onto the beach. Beneath me, the elephant walked on over soft and silent sand."
Those are the first couple of sentences from Running Wild, and I think it's a great opener.
The story is about a boy called Will, an elephant called Oona and a tsunami. After the death of his father, Will and his mum go to Indonesia for a holiday. Will's dad died in the war in Iraq, and him and his mum needed to have some time to acknowlegde that. As a christmas present, Will's mum let him have a ride on an elephant along the beach front, on Boxing Day, 2006. But this day was known for much more than being Boxing Day...
As the huge green wave towered over the sand, all Will could do was hang on to the elephant, Oona, as she stampeded away from the beach and into the forest. The man giving the elephant rides had told Will that Oona wouldn't go anywhere near the sea- it was like she could sense something; something like a tsunami.
Will was on the elephant for days and days; holding onto the
howdah as best as he could.
Oona and Will became closer and closer over the weeks that turned into months that they were in the forest for. His dad was dead, and Will's mum had been in the sea on the day of the tsunami, and so the chances of her surviving were not very high, but through all this Oona and him and become better friends, almost family now, and Will appreciated this as both his parents had died.
Living in the jungle was easier said than done. There were rivers and streams dotted about the place, so that was water sorted, and food was too; there were many bananas and coconuts to eat, and the occasional fig tree every now and again. But the climate was hot and sticky, and very humid, except when the storms came of course, which would begin suddenly and end just as abruptly as they had started.
Getting used to the insects took quite some time, but when he was up on Oona, she did all the work for Will; waving her ears about prevented the flies from getting to her.
All was rather well, you could say. Will being to fit in to the forest, and became a bit of a wild animal himself! One day, Oona and Will were sharing a fig tree with some orang-utans, Will gorging himself on each and every one of the figs until the tree was bare. There was a distant rumble in the depths of the forest, which rapidly came closer and closer, until it became so close that Will, from high up in the tree could see that it was not a rumble as such, but more of an attack. An attack with guns firing at the orang-utans, making them fall out of the tree one by one. As Will watched in terror, trying to hold on to the branches around him, all he could do was panic, as his hands lost the grip on the tree. As he fell out of it, Will lay unconsious on the jungle floor...
A story of perserverance, Running Wild is a brilliant story by a brillant author!
Other Michael Morpurgo books include:
 |
| War Horse |
 |
| Waiting for Anya |
 |
| Private Peaceful |
 |
| The Wreck of the Zanzibar |
I hope you like my review on Running Wild by Michael Morpurgo. I can tell you now that there will be more where that came from!
El
