Hi ladies! In my previous life (before kids) I majored in English Literature and was taking classes to teach high school and middle school English. I really love reading adolescent literature! I found a book at the library this week that some of your kids might enjoy. It is called Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. It is about a boy whose family decides to home school him while they travel the world via sailboat. He winds up falling overboard and surviving on an island where he meets fellow castaway Kensuke, a very old Japanese man who has been living alone on the island for many years. It was a nice story, not too violent (except for some poachers who come to the island looking for monkeys) and very inspiring. The thing I liked the best was the fact that it really proved time and time again that most of what you need to learn does not come from a book or classroom! Might be good summer reading! Tara
Amazon lists it for grades 4-7 but I think it could work as a read aloud for earlier grades as well. The main character is an 11-year-old boy from England. The School Library Journal states "What might have been just a gritty tale of survival evolves into a gentle parable about trust, compassion, love, and hope. This well-crafted story has all the thrills and intrigues of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (Macmillan, 1986) and Theodore Taylor's The Cay (Avon, 1976), and it will resonate with the same audience." Tara
