The Explorer: WINNER OF THE COSTA CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD

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I didn’t know vultures could so much look like aunts,” said Con. Moreover, a few lines impart wisdom in a nonchalant way. Not like taking a pedestal and talking down to the reader but more so like talking to a friend. You should always dress like you might be going to the jungle. You never know when you might meet an adventure.” I think I struggled to understand what the story was about - whether it was one of conservation or one of voyage and return. The concept itself was wonderful and I have no doubt that children will love getting lost in the jungle with Fred, Lila, Max and Con but I just couldn't connected with the characters themselves and wanted to - characters are what Rundell excels at.

I loved the way this narrative ran, it was a classic survival-in-the-wild style story but then we are introduced to a mysterious man called 'The Explorer' (I must not have read the blurb because this aspect was a surprise to me!). I loved this element of the story especially since this figure felt sinister at first but his development revealed hidden depths and a heart-warming relationship with one of our protagonists. Moshenska, Joe (29 March 2022). "The Poet and the Whale". Literary Review . Retrieved 28 February 2023.The story has several unexpected twists and turns. It builds and builds, and gets better and better. I made a lot of highlights during the second half of the book. There are several unexpected moments. My class all loved the character Con. One of my children liked how he hated Con at the beginning and warmed up to her, to the point at which she is now his favourite character. My class found Max revolting, and it was particularly enjoyable watching them all squirm. Themes Oddly, I had a really hard time getting into this one. It's right up my alley, so I'm not sure exactly why that was. My best guess is that this book read just like watching a movie. You could see every move people made, and hear what they said, and experience what they saw...but it didn't have the depth that I expect in a book. Yes, even a middle-grade book. a b c d de Lisle, Tim (22 January 2017). "British Novelist Bringing Edwardian Wit Off-Broadway". Newsweek. New York City . Retrieved 23 January 2017.

And all of you - do not forget that, lost out here, you were brave even in your sleep. Do not forget to take risks. Standing ovations await your bravery,' Con swallowed. 'But I'm afraid,' she whispered. The Explorer nodded, scarred and dusty and matter-of-fact. 'You are right to be afraid. Be brave anyway.' Rundell's third novel, The Wolf Wilder, tells the story of Feodora, who prepares wolf cubs – kept as status-symbol pets by wealthy Russians – for release into the wild when they become too large and unmanageable for their owners. [12]Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2018 winners". Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. 1 February 2018. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018 . Retrieved 11 August 2018. The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2022". The Baillie Gifford Prize . Retrieved 17 November 2022. Drabble, Emily (3 April 2014). "Katherine Rundell wins the Waterstones children's book prize 2014". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 23 January 2017. Fisher, Philip (3 August 2016). "Life According to Saki". British Theatre Guide . Retrieved 23 January 2017. It also drew on her own, rather unusual hobby of roof walking. A climber since childhood – “I’ve always loved up high” – Rundell heard about the tradition of rooftop climbing when she arrived at Oxford as an undergraduate. Climbing the roofs at All Souls, she found an old bottle, and it sparked the idea for a story about children living on the roofs of Paris.

Danger hides around every corner as we follow the children on their perilous journey. In terms of pacing, The Explorer is quite a strange one, with a high degree of variation in the chapter lengths at times; this allowed me to read the longer chapters to my class to keep the story flowing, and use the shorter chapters for my children to work on. Running through the entire book is a strong appreciation of nature and its multi-faceted beauty. I won’t give anything away, but keep an eye out for the journey down the river, and the journey towards the cliff, and you’ll see exactly what I mean. The children, and other characters, drink, smoke, steal and tattoo themselves with knives. This is all dealt with quite tactfully, as would be expected from a children’s book, but it does mean the book is more suited to the far end of upper primary school and beyond.a b "Katherine Rundell wins Waterstones Children's Book Prize". BBC News Online. BBC. 3 April 2014 . Retrieved 22 January 2017. So she spent her early 20s in a heady mix of academia and children’s fiction. The Girl Savage was acquired by Faber while she was still 21, “in a sort of whirlwind”. Rooftoppers, which won the Blue Peter book award as well as the Waterstones, followed The Girl Savage and drew on the Shakespeare paper she was teaching undergraduates. It opens with a baby floating in a cello case in the middle of the Channel, and Rundell describes it as “a play on Twelfth Night to an extent, in that her mother disguises herself as a boy to go on a ship, and then washes up on a foreign shore”. Rooftoppers. Illustrated by Terry Fan. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 24 September 2013. ISBN 978-1442490581. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: others ( link) I have always loved poetry in the way you love swimming in the sea or running or eating,” she says, quoting a line from Margaret Edson’s play Wit, that Donne “makes Shakespeare sound like a Hallmark card”.