In August 2018, WildChild Productions took a theatrical adaptation of Kensuke's Kingdom by Stuart Paterson to Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [3] It featured a voiceover by Jenny Agutter.

Michael and Kensuke make a range of objects using materials from the island. Could you make your own clothes / equipment / tools using natural materials found on the ground?Create your own map of the island, using information in the book (and Michael Morpurgo’s illustrations) to help you (see Resources below). Kensuke's Kingdom is a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman. It was first published in 1999 [1] by Egmont UK. Since then, it has been released by various other publishers, such as Scholastic. [2] Book summary [ edit ]

Look at the map of the world, as shown in the book. Can you identify the places Michael travelled to? Can you find out more information about each place? Could you calculate the distance that he travelled? Michael kept his promise to Kensuke. What does a promise mean? Has anyone ever asked you to keep a promise? After some time, Michael and Kensuke start to form a bond but Michael knows he can’t stay on the island forever. After Kensuke realises how much Michael misses his family, he agrees to help him light a fire when they see the next ship. By miracle, the next ship is Michael’s parents who have been looking for him ever since he fell off the boat. In the epilogue, Michael publishes his story after ten years, as Kensuke asked him to do, and receives a letter from Michiya, Kensuke's son, who reveals that he and his mother did indeed avoid the Nagasaki bombing, for they went to visit their grandparents during the bombing. Michael and Michiya meet, and Michael notes that Michiya laughs just like his father did.

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. Before reading the story, look at the chapter titles. Can you predict what might happen as the story progresses? Imagine that you have just woken up alone on an island. Write a story that explains what happens next. Kensuke's Kingdom is a gripping adventure of survival and true friendship from the author of War Horse. 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.

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? Turn the story (or part of it) into a playscript and perform it. Watch this video of a stage version for inspiration: 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.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. Kensuke's Kingdom is a great book to read in Upper Key Stage 2 and it explores topics such as hope, friendship and survival. 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? 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? 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.