The Butterfly Lion: Michael Morpurgo

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Bertie escapes from his school and meets Millie, and the two become fast friends, flying kites together. He tells Millie all about his life in South Africa, and his white lion cub. When the pair leave school, they continue to write until war breaks out, and a letter arrives from Bertie informing Millie that he has joined the army.

and between the lion cub and the hyenas, shouting at them to go away. They didn't. They stood and watched, uncertain for a while, then they began to circle again. Closer. Closer. After five baths, he was finally clean, and completely white. Have you ever seen a white lion before? No?It may be difficult to remember sometimes,but there's always sun behind the clouds,and the clouds do go in the end. Honestly.' Emotion/Emoji Word Bank: Create a word bank of emotion-related words (e.g., joyful, worried, excited) on the board, linking them to corresponding emojis. Ask children to rate the books they read based on their emotions. This book is an extremely good book and touching. It tells the story of a boy, who runs away from school and meets an old lady called Milly. She tells him a wonderful story about a boy called Bertie, who finds a white lion cub in Africa. Bertie has to go to boarding school in England and the lion cub is sold to a French circus man.

Try to research the place 'Timbavati', where Bertie was born. What is the environment like there? Who lives there? What is there to do in the local area? How is it similar / different to where you were born? Millie uses the phrase ‘Everything comes to he who waits’. What does this mean? Can you find out any more famous phrases?Write a set of instructions to teach somebody how to look after an animal (e.g. a lion cub, a dog, a goldfish). Make a list of the animals named in the book. What can you find out about them? Can you identify what they eat, their habitats, how they are adapted to live there etc? This is such a beautiful story. There is such a poetic structure to it. I listened to the Butterfly lion as an audio book and found it very moving. I thought of year five, when I was listening and how it could link into ww2. I felt that it would be particularly beneficial if the children could experience the audiobook version. There are so many benefits from listening to a story in any format, from developing listening skills and quite concentration to fostering imagination and visualization techniques. All of these skills are thought to develop reading comprehension. However, for me, audio versions take this again to another level. Having a skilled narrator telling the story,especially if it's the author themselves,as michael Morpurgo does.Can help a child understand ,punctuation,enunciation and bring out the meaning of the text. It is wonderful to hear from different character perspectives. The language and accents,transport you into the story, also,helping the listener appreciate unfamiliar accents and dialects.Although you may need hard copies for the children to refer to when engaging them in tasks. Write / tell one of the stories that the men might share when they come home from their time away guarding the cattle. I thought it was well - written...for a classic,I mean. It flowed nicely,too and was a pleasure to read. It had many great life lessons.