I recently finished the book called Alone on a Wide Wide Sea. It was by Michael Morpurgo.
The book was in 2 parts. Part 1 was about the orphan boy Arthur and his upsetting life, and the second part was about his daughter Allie and her great adventure.
Arthur was an orphan and he was separated from his sister Kitty in England. He was shipped all the way to Australia without her. The only memory that Arthur had of his sister was the lucky key that she gave him. Arthur couldn't remember what the key was for, he couldn't even be sure if Kitty was real, or just a figure of his imagination.
On the ship taking him to Australia, Arthur made one friend, Marty, who guided him through most of his life. Marty protected him from the bullies and kept both of their spirits up.
Marty, Arthur and many, many other children were taken to the orphanage in Australia,
Coopers Station. It was a horrific and cruel orphanage. The orphanage turned out to be a nightmare; the children worked for their food every day, and if they were caught doing anything wrong, they'd be strapped! One boy ran away and he didn't come back. It wasn't just the kids of
Coopers Station that were abused, the owner of the children, Piggy Bacon also abused his wife. Mrs Bacon, or Ida, helped Marty and Arthur escape from the horrible Coopers Station.
Thankfully, the boys found a kind woman, Aunty Megs. Aunty Megs took the boys in, like she took all of her little orphans in. The only thing different was, her 'little orphans' were animals! Joeys and Wallabies were just a few of the intriguing animals adopted by Aunty Megs. She released all of her baby animals when they grew up, even the boys!
Arthur and Marty drifted apart as the years went on. Arthur started ruining his life and eventually went into a mental home. The only thing that stopped him from killing himself was the loving nurse Zita. Zita and Arthur quickly fell in love, mostly because they both had a love for Boat Making. Zita's whole family loved Boat Making, and so does Arthur. Zita and Arthur got married and had a daughter called Allie. She loved boats too.
When Allie turned 18, her mother let her set sail to England to find Arthur's sister Kitty. By now, Arthur had died, but he had left Allie his lucky key that Kitty had given him. When Allie was on the deck of the boat, she saw a magnificent, snowy white Albatross. Her dad loved albatrosses, and Allie believed that it was her father's spirit. One depressing day, her albatross died. The terrible thing was, Allie had killed it accidently. The albatross got stuck in a fishing net. Allie never sent emails to her mother after her albatross died because she was too depressed. However, a clever sea turtle came one day and lifted Allie's spirits. The sea turtle never came back after that one visit, but Allie remained happy. The sea turtle had done its job. Allie started sending emails to her mother again, and she wanted began to search Kitty again.
After a long voyage, Allie finally found Kitty, and she found out what the lucky key her father had given her was for.
I really loved this story. It was 133 pages long, I like long stories. I would recommend it to kids over the age of 9. The story was really depressing at parts, but it was uplifting as well.
In my opinion, it was Michael Morpurgo's best book since
Shadow.
