Credits

THE AMAZING STORY OF ADOLPHUS TIPS
by Michael Morpurgo
(Harper Collins, £10.99)

What is it all about?

It’s 1943 and schoolgirl Lily Tregenza and her family have been ordered to evacuate their home in the coastal village of Slapton in order that the Allied Forces can use the land in preparation for D-Day. On the day of the move Lily’s beloved cat Tips goes missing. Lily defies the barbed wire, the guns and explosions, to return and look for him. Kid’s view:“This is an excellent story about growing up in World War Two. The characters are believable and you really get to care about them.My favourites were Barry the evacuee and Adolphus the black GI who helps Lily look for Tips.I couldn’t put this book down and so I read it in a day. As well as funny bits,there are parts that are very emotional.There’s a brilliant twist at the end too. It’s well worth reading!”
Fred (11)

Parent’s view

“Michael Morpurgo’s The Butterfly Lion was the book that instilled a love of reading in Fred and so we’re both big fans of this author. Unlike The Butterfly Lion, the protagonist in Adolphus Tips is a girl and so I was interested to see if Fred would find this off-putting. Not a bit of it. After he finished it, Betty (aged 7) and I read it aloud together. The more Betty read aloud to me the more confident she became. The book contains a diversity of colourful characters – cockneys, American soldiers, West Country farmers – and we both had a lot of fun with the different accents.”
Alice, Fred’s mum.

my child’s verdict

Adolphus Tips is an important book as it teaches children, as well as adults, not to judge people by first impressions. Morpurgo is a master at ensnaring the reader with the promise of a surprise ending. His simple, unpretentious prose has the power to reduce the whole family to tears.

www.amazon.co.uk