Animal Stories

by Michael Morpurgo, Andrew Davidson (Illustrator)

Have a haunted Halloween! Guaranteed to chill and thrill, this spine-tingling collection of twenty-two spooky stories includes contributions from Franz Kafka, Charles Dickens, and Guy de Maupassant.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Childrens

222 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 1999

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a varied and thoroughly enjoyable collection of stories (or more accurately a collection of extracts from longer stories which you might be encouraged to read).

Although these are extracts, each of the stories is sufficiently complete to stand on its own.

Each chapter has a small introduction by Michael Morpurgo which gives a little more context.

[Elzbeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the variety of stories chosen for this anthology, from Noah’s arc to Darwin to fiction in between. The stories were simple and enjoyable

[Amy Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slay Oscar Wilde also all the stories were really meaningful and cute and I love the personified animals <3

[Joanne Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love animals so this book attracted me. What I liked was the 21 different stories were diverse and by popular authors. It's a book you can dip into at any time and anywhere. I loved it.

[Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great book because this book connects animals to humans and how they act the same but in different ways.This book contains mini stories inside of a big one. These mini stories talk about different animals. With every mini story there is a different author.It talks about people hurting animals and how they are saving them. Overall this book was a good book because it shows a lot of meaning and it is very descriptive

[Gala · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a gift from my grandmother, many years ago. She knew I love animals and reading, so this was a good choice for a present. I like the fact that each story has a different narrative style, and all of them reach to you somehow.

[Tori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was mostly bored while reading this book;however, there were a few stories, like The Cat That Walks Alone that I did enjoy reading.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the book but needs more thrill to it and more details as well as length.

[Cws]

JF-Mor