Kensuke's Kingdom

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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.” The front cover of the early edition has an illustration inspired by the work of Japanese painter Hokusai Katsushika. The painter is mentioned in the story, too.

Create your own map of the island, using information in the book (and Michael Morpurgo’s illustrations) to help you (see Resources below). 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: 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. 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.Kensuke's Kingdom is a gripping adventure from the author of War Horse. 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.

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? Before reading the story, look at the chapter titles. Can you predict what might happen as the story progresses? Draw some sketches of the things that Michael saw during his time on the Peggy Sue, while he was on the island and inside Kensuke’s cave house.

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Imagine that you have just woken up alone on an island. Write a story that explains what happens next. The book follows Michael, his parents and their dog on the trip of a lifetime around the world. They leave their jobs and set sail but Michael and his dog fall overboard and they wake up on a desert island.