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Revision as of 10:44, 26 November 2014
, 10:44, 26 November 2014no edit summary
Oh, this is a lovely, lovely story and Morpurgo takes his time unravelling Lucy's story. It's about kindness. It's about fear of the other. It's about grief and trauma. And it's rich and sticky with Morpurgo's trademark understanding. He is never afraid to describe the darker side of life - particularly the darker side of war - but he never leaves his young readers without a sense of hope and a firm grip on a moral compass. ''Listen to the Moon'' is also full of lyrical descriptions of landscape and island life, which make it a real pleasure to read.
There's a wealth of fascinating detail, too. From adverts taken out by the German government in America warning that passenger ships could be military targets to the story of the Scillionian's rescue of survivors from the SS Schiller and the remains of the Pest House on one of the Scillies' uninhabited islands, readers will come out of the story with a rich understanding of history. This is a story based on an infamous incident during World War I, but I don't want to spoil things, so I'm not saying which one. Morpurgo often tells a story of a traumatised little boy who never spoke, until he was discovered on a visit to his wife's farm charity, chattering away to a horse. You'll find that in there, too, and it really made me smile.
At 400-and-odd pages, it's a long novel by Morpurgo's standards, but don't let it put you off. ''Listen to the Moon'' is an absorbing, involving read and it goes by far too quickly.
