Adventure



Red Hill Primary ACT ||
 * **Title** || **Author** || **Synopsis** || **Recommended by...** ||
 * **[|Running Wild] ** || Michael Morpurgo || This is almost the modern day "Jungle Book" written after the author's attention was drawn to a news story following the Boxing Day Tsunami in Indonesia 2004. It was reported that an English boy who had been having an elephant ride had escaped the fury of the tsunami because the elephant intuitively ran away into the jungle. Roald Dahl also found (often grim) ways to enable his child protagonists to develop their characters //sans// parents and similarly Morpurgo has his central figure Will an orphan after tragically losing both a soldier father in Iraq and mother in the tsunami. Will's survival in the jungle with his elephant companion is a remarkable adventure involving natural consequences as well as evil poachers. The plot effectively highlights the plight of many native animals, certainly in this case orangutans. Morpurgo expands his reader's knowledge by including informational postscripts about various significant topics within the text. The book would work well as a 'read aloud' and would certainly enhance a unit of work around any of the themes of: resilience, relationships, grief/loss, conservation and natural disasters. || Sue Warren
 * **The Tomorrow Code ** || Brian Falkner || This great adventure is set in Auckland. Two teenagers, Tane Williams and Rebecca Richards receive a message from the future. The whole city will be wiped out. The survival of the human race depends on it. This is a great yarn with a unique twist. A great read for upper primary to adult readers. || Debbie Haddrick ||