15.07.14 | Charlotte Eyre - The Bookseller
HarperCollins Children’s Books will publish a new World War One-set novel from Michael Morpurgo this autumn.
Listen to the Moon is set on an island in the Scillies and is about a boy who finds a girl with no memory of who she is. Is she a mermaid, a victim of a German U-boat or a German spy?
Former children’s laureate Morpurgo said the story was inspired by a medal his family once had commemorating the sinking of the Lusitania ship by a U-boat in May of 1915
The sinking was “at the time the greatest single wartime civilian disaster in history”, he said, adding: “Three hours or so after the sinking, the grand piano from the dining saloon of this luxurious liner was found floating on the ocean, in some reports, with a child still clinging on. That was my inspiration for Listen to the Moon. It is a story of love and loss, of family and community fractured by war, of the power of hope, and above all of the will of the human spirit to survive.”
Morpurgo is the author of several children’s books set during WW1, including Private Peaceful (HarperCollins Children’s Books) and War Horse (Egmont), which was turned into a successful stage play and film.
HarperCollins Children’s Books will publish Listen to the Moon on 25th September.
Listen to the Moon is set on an island in the Scillies and is about a boy who finds a girl with no memory of who she is. Is she a mermaid, a victim of a German U-boat or a German spy?
Former children’s laureate Morpurgo said the story was inspired by a medal his family once had commemorating the sinking of the Lusitania ship by a U-boat in May of 1915
The sinking was “at the time the greatest single wartime civilian disaster in history”, he said, adding: “Three hours or so after the sinking, the grand piano from the dining saloon of this luxurious liner was found floating on the ocean, in some reports, with a child still clinging on. That was my inspiration for Listen to the Moon. It is a story of love and loss, of family and community fractured by war, of the power of hope, and above all of the will of the human spirit to survive.”
Morpurgo is the author of several children’s books set during WW1, including Private Peaceful (HarperCollins Children’s Books) and War Horse (Egmont), which was turned into a successful stage play and film.
HarperCollins Children’s Books will publish Listen to the Moon on 25th September.
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