Kensuke's Kingdom

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Imagine that you could interview Michael, Kensuke and / or his parents. What would you ask them? How might they respond at different points in the story? Michael’s father has a dream to sail around the world. Do you have a dream? What steps do you need to take to achieve it? An utterly magical of one boy’s desert island adventure – full of friendship, trust and humanity. From the nation’s favourite storyteller.

Imagine that Michael’s log book had floated ashore on the island. Can you write some more entries in it to describe his time there? Like Private Peaceful, War Horseand several other of Michael Morpurgo’s novels, Kensuke’s Kingdom has been turned into a play. Kensuke's Kingdom Differentiated Reading Comprehension Activity - This reading comprehension activity is a great way to assess your pupils' understanding of the novel as you go. Differentiated so you can tailor the resource to your pupils' abilities, it features questions for the opening, chapter 5 and chapter 10. Listen to the audiobook version of the story. Could you record your own audio version or the story (or part of it)? Michael got the name for the main character’s dog, Stellas Artois, from a boy who came to stay on his farm in Devon. The boy’s dog, an Alsatian, was called Stellas Artois.Kensuke's Kingdom is a gripping adventure of survival and true friendship from the author of War Horse.

Create your own map of the island, using information in the book (and Michael Morpurgo’s illustrations) to help you (see Resources below). Turn the story (or part of it) into a playscript and perform it. Watch this video of a stage version for inspiration:

If you could ask the author questions about the book or his work, what would you ask? Watch this video in which he shares the answers to his five most asked questions: Added Hendry: “Something that we have been focusing on in the last few years is the creative blend of mixed media. We like to see how the things we love can inhabit the same space — the charm of 2D hand drawn characters, the depth of photoreal worlds, the character of miniature environments, matte paintings and the random nature of filmed effects footage.” Kensuke’s Kingdom is a thrilling adventure story from exceptional children’s writer Michael Morpurgo.

The producing team behind Kensuke’s Kingdom is now comprised of Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding of Lupus Films, Sarah Radclyffe (co-founder of Working Title Films and producer of over 30 live-action films), Barnaby Spurrier ( Deadtime Stories for Big Folk, Somers Town), and Stephan Roelants of Melusine Productions.

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Michael Morpurgo has written more than one hundred books for children 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. Read the first sentence of the story: ‘I disappeared on the night before my twelfth birthday’. Why has the author used this as the first sentence? Could you use it as the start of your own story? Kensuke’s Kingdom has strong themes of ecological conservation and respect for the environment, including a climactic showdown with poachers who are trying to overtake the island, and directors Boyle and Hendry have spent time investigating the best approach for visualizing the natural world onscreen. They’ve come up with a solution that balances organic elements with digital compositing, and which is both unique and visually striking.