Tuesday 14 June 2011

The Man Behind War Horse

Autograph session with Michael Morpurgo at Sal...Image via WikipediaCongratulations to the producers of War Horse which won five awards at the Tony Awards on Sunday - New York theatreland's equivalent of the Oscars.

The play uses life-sized horse puppets to show how the animals were used in the First World War and is based on a book written by Michael Morpurgo. Amazingly the book was first published in 1982. I say amazingly, because we still sell at least a couple of copies a week nearly 30 years later in leafy Retford.

Morpurgo's latest book, Shadow, about an Afghan boy who befriends a dog whilst fleeing the war, won the Red House Children's Book Award (voted for by children) on Saturday. He has previously won the award for Kensuke's Kingdom and Private Peaceful, two more books which outsell anything in our children's section, now that J. K. Rowling's books are backlist.

His books are not easy, comfortable reads but are gritty, realistic and thought-provoking and children (and adults) love them.
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