A Medal for Leroy

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If you're reading this at all, Michael, then it means you've found my little writing pad behind the photo of your papa, just as I intended you to... Read it again from time to time as you get older...I am sure that as we grow up, we do become more able to understand ourselves and other people as little better...I am sure you will become more understanding and forgiving as the years pass. I hope so, because I'm sure that it's only in forgiving that it's only in forgiving that we find real peace of mind"(61). He was not who he thought he was nor were his Aunts who he thought they were. When Michael was 13, five years after his Auntie's death, he was given Jasper to take care of when Auntie Pish couldn't do it anymore. Eventually she went into a nursing home and, about five years after the death of her sister, she gave Michael the parcel that was meant for him. A son and grandson of actors, Michael has acting in his blood and enjoys collaborating and performing live adaptations of his books at festivals, concerts and theatres. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives.

Medal for Leroy - Guided Reading planning | Teaching Resources Medal for Leroy - Guided Reading planning | Teaching Resources

And I think it's true that many of us certainly me, are fascinated to discover more about the lives of our parents and grandparents and even out great-grandparents, because like it or not, they make us who we are" You can also read about his life in War Child to War Horse,a collaborative biography with Maggie Fergusson. Growing up in London during the 1940s, the devastating effects of the Second World War are still fresh, and despite Michael’s careful probing, all his ‘Maman’ will tell him about his father is that his name was Roy and that he was an RAF Spitfire pilot who was tragically shot down over the English Channel during the Battle of Britain in 1940.Scott Shane's outstanding work Flee North tells the little-known tale of an unlikely partnership ...

A Medal for Leroy by Michael Morpurgo | Waterstones A Medal for Leroy by Michael Morpurgo | Waterstones

That's just about all I knew, all she would tell me, anyway. No matter how much I asked, and I did, and more often as I grew up, she would say little more about him. I know now how painful it must have been for her to talk of him, but at the time I remember feeling very upset, angry almost toward her. He was my father, after all, wasn't he? It felt to me as if she was keeping him all for herself. Occasionally after a soccer match, or when I'd run down to the corner shop on an errand for old Ma Merritt who lived next door to us, Maman might say something like: "Your papa would have been so proud of you. I so wish he'd known you." But never anything more, nothing about him, nothing that helped me to imagine what sort of a man he might have been. Somehow it had gotten around the school, and all down the street, about my father—I don't know how, because I never said anything. Everyone seemed to know why Maman was always alone—and not just at the school gates, but at Nativity plays at Christmastime, at soccer matches. It was common knowledge in school and down our street, that my father had been killed in the war. Whenever the war was spoken of around me—and it was spoken of often when I was growing up—voices would drop to a respectful, almost reverential whisper, and people would look at me sideways, admiringly, sympathetically, enviously even. I didn't know much more about my father than they did. But I liked the admiration and the sympathy, and the envy, too. In November 2016 Michael Morpurgo won the J M Barrie Award for his contribution to children’s literature.This award is given every year by Action for Children’s Arts to a “children’s arts practitioner” whose lifetime’s work has delighted children and will stand the test of time. Michael Morpurgo has thrilled and delighted huge numbers of young readers since becoming a children’s author in the early 1970s," Wood said. "Action for Children’s Arts is delighted to recognise Michael’s outstanding contribution by presenting him with the J M Barrie Award 2016. His work will undoubtedly, like Peter Pan, stand the test of time, making him a truly worthy recipient of this award." Set during World War I, Private Peaceful charts eight hours in the life of Tommo, a young soldier at the Front.The visits were always the same, time after time, but one day, as Michael was coming out of school, he saw his mother waiting for him and knew something was wrong. She told him that his Auntie Snowdrop had passed away. At the funeral, his Auntie Pish told him there was a parcel from Auntie Snowdrop for him and she was post it to him right away. As ever, Morpurgo's warmth and humanity suffuse a story of courage, love and hope. - Amanda Craig, The Times I recommend this book to girls and boys from 8-12. You may find the book a little easy, but it is a fantastic book. A moving story, and sad - I was on the edge of tears at points - but flowing from loss and injustice come gain, something of worth, understanding, and an affirmation of our humanity.