The Wreck of the Zanzibar

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Discuss author, title, front cover & blurb - What questions do they make you want to ask? What do you think the story will be about? Do you think you are going to like the story - why/why not?

An opportunity presents itself and Billy takes it. He leaves Bryher without saying goodbye to his family. Mother is heartbroken and retreats into her shell. The rest of the family, devastated, find their own ways of dealing with this grief. More misfortune strikes as a storm wipes out the cattle, the hens and ruins their houses. Things go from bad to worse before they start getting better towards the end. The island of Bryher is bleak and barren. Laura's father, a harsh and taciturn man, has turned his son Billy against island life with his incessant demands. Billy wants to see the world outside. Laura just wants to crew the island gig but her father is adamant in his refusal. No girl on any of the Scilly Isles has been an oarsman on a gig and no daughter of his is going to be the first.

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The book has some other interesting parts relating to Laura - the great aunt of Micheal who has recently passed away and in her will, has left him a diary. I love diary related stories, such a great way of capturing a person in a most intense way, it's easy to write down one's feelings and be completely honest about all the emotions being poured out and etched on to the paper. I'm usually fine with not a lot happening in a story but this didn't work for me when I read it. On saying this, discussing Billy's adventures would be exciting for children and perhaps the simple and rather dull aspect of life on the Scilly Isles at the turn of the 20th century was a true reflection. I liked the idea that the story closes with Michael, just as it opened with him. Morpurgo does this A LOT - a story within a story. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-07-09 10:01:22 Associated-names Birmingham, Christian Boxid IA40171311 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

The hardship on the island deepens when a storm rips off roofs, smashes houses and drowns the few cows on which the islanders are dependent for their milk. Hope disappears. Even Laura's parents are estranged from each other because of Billy's departure. Lots of people may think that this book is too depressing for children so young but I felt reading it as a child I was able to relate to elements of the book, as they weren't to different from experience I was dealing with at the time. This book can be quiet dark and depressing at time but like in life if you continue to persevere and try your hardest things will get better. I thought the opening was lovely and the chapters are brief with the first person narrative flitting between Michael and Laura. Elements of the story reminded me of Why the Whales Came which I thought to be far better.When it comes to a choice between the rough, unrelenting work under his father's stern eye and the promise of adventure held out by Joseph Hannibal, a sea-faring visitor, there's no contest. Billy leaves in secret on the General Lee. Each sheet relates to a section of the book and includes some straightforward comprehension questions. In addition, there are some sentence and word level tasks, some deeper comprehension work and some creative writing prompts spread amongst the sheets. Written as a diary entry - I like the idea of doing up the classroom like a set from the book and using maps to find out where the Scilly Isles are and what they look like. Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-10-g1236 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.8770 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000311 Openlibrary_edition Kevin Kerr has contributed these guided reading questions. As always, any more resources for this book would be gratefully received!

Book Genre: Academic, Adventure, British Literature, Childrens, European Literature, Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Novels, School, Young Adult I loved the way in which Michael Morpurgo wrote the story, reading Laura's diary entries I felt that it was more personal and carried a lot more emotion. The story begins with Michael's great aunt Laura who has just passed away, who has left him her diaries for him to read. The diary is written over a year when Laura was 14 years old and documents her troubled family life that led to her twin brother running away to sea. This truly broke Laura's heart. The diary entries tells the story of this time for Laura and the events that led to Laura saving the day not just for her family but for everyone that lived on the the island of Bryher. They were designed to be used by a Year 5 class who read this book over the course of six weeks as a class novel. The worksheets are saved in both MSWord and PDF formats, allowing them to be edited if necessary or printed off as they are.My only criticism of the book is that there is a little too much misery and sadness in the book which continues nearly till the end and can sometimes make the reading very depressing. However, the author keeps the characters very real and as a reader, I felt very involved in their lives. I would give it an 8/10 and would recommend it to those who enjoy realistic stories. A miracle is needed to save the island, to save granny and to save the marriage of Laura's parents.