Kensuke’s Kingdom, by Michael Morpurgo
Michael enjoys a very typical childhood. He goes to school, plays soccer, and delivers papers on the weekend. He has a great dog named Stella Artois.
Then, a letter arrives from the local brick works where both of his parents work. The brick works is shutting down, and Michael’s parents are without jobs. Before this happened, the family enjoyed taking weekend dinghy excursions around the local reservoir. When he can’t find employment, Michael’s father decides to turn a weekend hobby into a full-time life style. They sell what they can and move south to the coast where they buy a sea-worthy yacht called the Peggy Sue. They hire an experienced sailor to train them, and, then, they sail away from England to begin their trip around the world.
The trip begins in September. Almost a year later, on the eve of Michael’s twelfth birthday, disaster strikes. Storms have blown them off course somewhere in the Coral Sea. One night, Michael is at the wheel when he hears Stella barking at the ship’s bow. He realizes that she doesn’t have her harness on so he goes to entice her back to safety with his soccer ball. Before he can react, Michael, Stella, and the soccer ball fall overboard. The only thing that keeps Michael afloat is his soccer ball and the hope that his parents will find him. This hope wanes with the cold water and physical exhaustion.
Then, someone pulls him out of the water, and Michael regains consciousness on the beach of an uninhabited Pacific island. Kensuke, a Japanese soldier stranded since World War 2, begrudgingly feeds Michael and Stella, but makes it plain that he wants nothing to do with them. When jellyfish stings render Michael paralyzed and unconscious, Kensuke nurses him back to health. From that time, the two are inseparable.
(Additional Information: The book takes place in 1987. It’s unclear why Kensuke was left on the island after the Japanese surrender. He may or may not have known that the war was over. He wouldn’t let Michael light a fire or do anything else to attract attention to the island, and when Michael was rescued, Kensuke swore him to secrecy. Shoichi Yokoi‘s story is similar to Kensuke’s.)
