Colly's Barn: Red Banana

by Michael Morpurgo, Ian Andrew (Illustrator)

Overview

A beautifully crafted chapter book by Michael Morpurgo, the author of War Horse, for Egmont’s red banana series.

Annie's father is going to knock down the old barn and build a new one. What will happen to Colly the swallow and all the other birds and animals that live there? Annie is worried about their safety. But one night something amazing happens and she realises that the birds are wiser than she could ever have imagined . . .

Red bananas are chapter books for newly fluent readers, suitable for NC Level 3 readers. They are carefully designed with education in mind, supporting children’s understanding of how to read longer books. Red bananas introduce similes and wordplay to encourage an understanding of more literary concepts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780311708
Publisher:	Egmont UK Ltd
Publication date:	12/05/2011
Series:	The Devil Wears Prada #03
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 Years

About the Author

Michael Morpurgo Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo needs no introduction. He is one of the most successful children's authors in the country, loved by children, teachers and parents alike. Michael has written more than forty books for children including the global hit War Horse, which was made into a Hollywood film by Steven Spielberg in 2011. Several of his other stories have been adapted for screen and stage, including My Friend Walter, Why the Whales Came and Kensuke's Kingdom. Michael has won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children's Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times. He started the charity Farms for City Children in 1976 with his wife, Clare, aimed at relieving the “poverty of experience” many young children feel in inner city and urban areas. Michael is also a patron of over a dozen other charities. Living in Devon, listening to Mozart and working with children have provided Michael with the ideas and incentive to write his stories. He spends half his life mucking out sheds with the children, feeding sheep or milking cows; the other half he spends dreaming up and writing stories for children. "For me, the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out - the writing down of it I always find hard. But I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hand and sharing my dream with my readers." Michael received an OBE in December 2006 for his services to literature.

Michael Morpurgo OBE was born in 1943 in St Albans and was educated at Kings Canterbury, Sandhurst and Kings College London. He taught for ten years in both state and private schools and is married with three children and six grandchildren.

His first book was published in 1975 and he has since published over 100 titles. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. Michael's books have also been adapted for film and the stage, including most recently the National Theatre's enormously successful production of War Horse.

Together with his wife Clare he founded Farms for City Children, an educational charity, in 1976. The organisation now runs three farms welcoming over 3,000 children a year. In 1999 he was awarded an MBE for services to youth, and in 2006 he was awarded an OBE.

His books have won the Whitbread Award (The Wreck Of Zanzibar), the Smarties Book Prize (The Butterfly Lion), the Children's Book Award (Kensuke's Kingdom) and Cercle D'Or Prix Sorciere (King Of The Cloud Forests), the Blue Peter Book Award and the Califonia Young Reader Medal (Private Peaceful), the Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award (Alone On A Wide Wide Sea) and several have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Michael was Children's Laureate from 2003-2005.

Ian Andrew is the illustrator of Penelope Lively's 'In Search of a Homeland: The Story of Aeneid'.

Editorial Reviews

Annie's grandpa tells her that birds can talk. "Not like you maybe,....and not like me, but they talk all right....I wonder if they understand us?" He is referring to the birds in their barn-the old barn that Annie's father wants to bulldoze and rebuild. Screecher, the owl, and Colly, the swallow, both have nests in the barn. One day a cat frightens Colly's baby bird and Screecher swoops down to save him. Soon after, lightning rips a hole through the barn. Annie's father says it is time to demolish the old building. Screecher and Colly overhear him and worry. Screecher's two owlets are not ready to fly and he won't leave them. Colly and the birds devise a plan to patch the barn. In this magical tale readers will believe that these flying creatures talk to each other, understand humans, and are smart enough to communicate with the characters. Annie had doubted her grandfather' words about talking birds. But, as the story progresses, she comes to believe that birds and owls not only communicate with each other, but are capable of forming powerful bonds with each other. This is evident to readers when they discover just how far Colly will go to help her beloved friend Screecher. This poignant story is a chapter book in the publisher's "Yellow Bananas" series. 2002 (orig.1991), Crabtree Publishing, Pettenati

Children's Literature

"[Colly's Barn] is a good choice for fluent early readers transitioning to chapter books." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Gr 2–3—Colly is a swallow that migrates every year to the old barn on the farm where Annie lives with her parents and Grandad. Her grandfather is very sentimental about the barn, but her father plans to demolish it. The birds that live there with Colly converse and offer one another support when they find their home threatened, first by a storm and later by the plan to tear it down. Grandad helps Annie to understand the barn's importance as a place for birds to nest and raise their young. One evening Screecher, an owl, visits them in what seems like a dream to tell them about her father's plan. Annie convinces him to spare the barn, although it is too late for Colly, who has died of exhaustion from efforts to repair the building. Young readers will learn about the migration of barn swallows and sympathize with Colly's struggles to protect her fledglings. Andrew's realistic, colorful pastel sketches enhance every page. This book is a good choice for fluent early readers transitioning to chapter books.—Diane Antezzo, Ridgefield Library, CT

School Library Journal