Kids into books - Kensuke's Kingdom

This weeks title: Kensuke's Kingdom

Author: Michael Morpurgo

Illustrator: Michael Foreman

Age Group: 10-12 years


We had some great days on the water. We'd go out when it was rough, when no one else would, and we'd go skimming over the waves, exhilarating in the speed of it, in the sheer joy of it. And if there wasn't a breath of wind, we didn't mind that either.

Sometimes we'd be the only boat on the whole reservoir. We'd just sit and fish instead - by the way, I was better at fishing than either of them - and Stella Artois would be curled up behind us in the boat, bored with the whole thing, because there was no one to bark at.

Then the letter arrived. Stella Artois savaged it as it came through the letterbox. There were puncture holes in it and it was damp, but we could read enough. The brickworks were going to close down. They were both being made redundant.

There was a terrible silence at the breakfast table that morning. After that we never went sailing on Sundays any more. I didn't have to ask why not. They both tried to find other jobs, but there was nothing.

A creeping misery came over the house. Sometimes I'd come home and they just wouldn't be speaking. They'd argue a lot, about little niggly things - and they had never been like that.