The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo

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Summary Written with incredible insight to children’s relationship with language, people and pets.

Set in the village of Slapton on the south coast of England during the Second World War, this story from master storyteller Morpurgo tells the tale of Lily Tregenza and how she, her family and her cat cope with rationing, evacuation, hope and grief. It is a charming tale with a gentle pace told in the form of a child’s diary.

The story begins with Boowie, who is Lily’s grandson, she is telling Boowie the story of an eventful year in her childhood in the form of a letter and old entries from her childhood diary. Boowie receives this letter after Lily has gone away on a mysterious trip following the death of Boowie’s grandfather. Lily tells the story from just before her 12th birthday; her father has joined the army and gone away to war and she lives with her mum and grandfather on their family’s farm with her beloved cat Tips. Before long all sorts of thing begin to change in Lily’s life, not just her father going away: an evacuee called Barry comes to live with them, everyone in the village and surrounding villages are evacuated; making the whole south coast a training ground for American and British troops to practise beach landings and poor Tips goes missing. Amidst all this upheaval Lily meets Adolphus T. Madison, ‘Adie’ for short. He promises to find Lily’s cat and Lily feels her first pangs of innocent unrequited love. The story also contains a surprise at the end, so as Grandma Lily tells Boowie in her letter – no peaking or you’ll spoil the surprise!

Written with incredible insight to children’s relationship with language, people and pets, this is a story with themes your child will be able to relate to even though it is set in a time that is before even their parents were born.