Kensuke's Kingdom - Michael Morpurgo - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Michael Morpurgo

GENRE: Middle-Grade Adventure.

PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1999.

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In school, we used to have a special period once a week called "Rapid Reading", where we used to read aloud all those abridged S.Chand classic editions. This RR period probably sowed the first seeds of a strong love for the classics in my heart.

Two such books I was mesmerized by were "The Coral Island" by RM Ballantyne and "Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss. The common thread between these two books was that of humans being stranded on an island after a shipwreck. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, arguably the most famous book in this genre, wasn't a part of the school RR syllabus but my Dad convinced me to borrow it from the library and give it a go. It seemed darker and more dangerous than the first two books (probably because I was reading the unabridged version) but I still enjoyed it.

After all these years, I have finally found a book that takes the same idea of being stranded on an island but targets it at slightly younger children: "Kensuke's Kingdom" by Michael Morpurgo.

The lead character of the book is a young boy of 10 who falls overboard his family ship and is rescued by the mysterious Kensuke who has made an abandoned Island his home. How they adapt to life in the island and adjust to each other forms the main story. The relationship between the man and the boy is nicely depicted and would serve as a nice discussion point if you intend to read it together with your kids.

The story is simple & straightforward enough, the characters are interesting & lovable enough, and the flow is satisfactory enough. Of course, you cannot expect the complexities of a Coral Island or Robinson Crusoe here because it is aimed at children after all. It's a pretty thin book at 176 pages. So I would say perfect for independent readers above 9 years. Good read-together option for the 7-9 age group. Might be scary or alarming for kids younger than that.

My daughter rates it a 5/5. I rate it 4.25/5 as a children's book.