Gentle Giant
2003
First Published
3.88
Average Rating
32
Number of Pages
A tale of compassion, love, and the healing powers of nature from an awardwinning team.On a small island in the middle of a silver lake, there once lived a sad young man. He was sad because he had grown up into a giant of a man—very big, very strong, and very frightening. Because no one liked to go near him, his only friends were the wild creatures that lived around him. Then one day, he saves a girl from drowning. Little does he know that she will change his life forever. Drawing on all the arts of traditional storytelling, Gentle Giant weaves a tale of extraordinary relevance to our world today. Michael Morpurgo is one of the most respected children’s authors working today; a winner of the Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, he has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award. Acclaimed illustrator Michael Foreman is a winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal as well as the Smarties Prize. The author–illustrator team have collaborated on a number of highly praised books, including Farm Boy.
Avg Rating
3.88
Number of Ratings
82
5 STARS
35%
4 STARS
33%
3 STARS
18%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Michael Morpurgo
Author · 138 books
Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.
