The Marble Crusher and other stories-Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo, The Marble Crusher and other stories, London. Egmont 2002, 90pp,ISBN 1-4052-0187-8

Age:6-9
Rating: 4/5

Award-winning children's author Michael Morpurgo brings together three simple stories with moral for children:

The Marble Crusher- Albert is new at school he believes almost anything that is friends told him, when his friend Sid told him that Mr Manners has an awful machine in his office that crushes marbles down to dust, he also believed in it!

Colly’s Barn- Annie wants to save Colly’s barn for Screecher the owl, and gets help with her plan from some very special friends.

Conker – it’s the time throughout the year for conker fights, and nick desperately wants to be a conker champion. With a little help from his grandmother, he becomes a very special conker champion.

Those three great stories good to practice begging reading for young children, in addition to reading they also learn how to behave in society.                                                                  For me as a parent's, it’s very important that a book will have added value and in this book, its certainty in. The child learns through the short stories: the power of words, friendship, help in trouble, and the importance of helping the animals.
The stories are accompanied by simple drawings that help young children understand the text.

We as parents or educators can do activities among the children’s about the book, like talk to the children about the importance of telling the truth, speak about helping people or animals that need their help. We can even take the kids to the animal shelter to make them understand how to behave to animals.

Michael Morpurgo has written more than 100 books that published in 25 languages; he won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, and the Children's Book Award; he also has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times. More recommended book that he write for young children are: The butterfly lion, red eyes at night, cool as a cucumber, the last wolf                                                            
for older we can find the amazing book War horse, Billy the kid and many more.