The Butterfly Lion - Michael Morpurgo

I've recently been looking for some slightly longer books to read with my daughter and Michael Morpurgo is an author that I like very much. The latest story of his that we have read is The Butterfly Lion, which is a most heart, warming story going back to the First World War. It is actually a story within a story as it starts in the present and then due to a chance meeting between a small boy and an old lady, goes back in time as she tells him her story! At the start of the book we meet the teller of the story - a young boy whose name we don't know. He is very unhappy at his boarding school so ... more

Author: Michael Morpurgo, who once held the role Child Laureate was born in 1943, and grew up in wartime London. He attended schools in London, Sussex and Canterbury, one of which was the inspiration for the school about which he wrote in The Butterfly Lion. The Butterfly Lion: This book was wriiten for children in 1996. Morpurgo mentions a number of events which inspired the writing of a story; his memories as a boy who attempted to run away from school; a book about a pride of white liaos and a true story about a soldier of the first world war who rescued circus animals in France from death ... more

This is the touching story of a young boy called Bertie told by his widowed wife after his death to another young boy called Jack after he finds himself in her garden after running away from boarding school (the same school Bertie went to) Bertie grew up in Africa where met his "Butterfly lion" but had to leave him when he got sent to England to go to boarding school. I don't want to give too much of the story away but i think any children (or adults) who love animals will absolutely adore this story and will want to read it over and over again. which would be easy as the print is large and ... more