Dolphin Boy

by Michael Morpurgo, Michael Foreman (Illustrator)

Jim lives in a fishing village—but no one goes fishing anymore as all the fish have gone. One day, Jim spots a dolphin beached on the sand. He runs to get help and everyone works together to return the dolphin to the water. Afterwards, the dolphin stays in the harbor, playing with the swimmers—and it even carries Jim on its back. Then the dolphin disappears, and everyone is so sorrowful that they take out a boat to see if they can find him. Suddenly, the sea is boiling with dolphins leaping out of the water. They have come to stay—and the village comes to life—with tourists, and money, and mended boats, and dolphins!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Kids

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

By Michael Morpurgo & Michael Foreman

Jim lives in a fishing village with his parents but no one in the village goes fishing any more as all the fish have gone, and his father’s boat the Sally May and all the other fishing boats become old and in disrepair. One day, Jim spots a dolphin beached on the sand. He runs to get help and everyone works together to return the dolphin to the water. Afterwards, the dolphin stays in the harbour, playing with the swimmers and it even carries Jim on its back. The dolphin disappears, and everyone is so sorrowful that they take out a boat to see if they can find him. Suddenly, the sea is boiling with dolphins leaping out of the water. They have come to stay and the village comes to life with tourists, and money, and mended boats, and dolphins.

I read this book to my year 3 class; they really enjoyed the story and the work they did complimented it. I didn’t think it had enough depth for my reading but my year 3 class took me by surprise and loved it, subsequently raising some interesting issues regarding community spirit, overfishing, emotion and feeling. It wouldn’t be a good story for a character description due to the plain and ordinary main character Jim. However, I found it very fitting to allow the children to write a diary entry because the visuals certainly helped the children to use descriptive language and the events of the story enabled them to use a variety of time connectives to sequence the story. We also discussed an array of words that the children were unfamiliar with such as quay, community, pier, raggedy, helm, sails, in spite of, dolphin and even seaweed. To spark more descriptive vocabulary we used a starter activity where the children came up with as many words as they could for the words’ sea and sand. Other ideas such as key events of a story, predictions, planning own stories and I’m sure many more.

[Jay Sensi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morpurgo, perhaps better known for his gripping novels such as War Horse and Private Peaceful, wrote this fascinating story about a boy’s adoration for a dolphin. The story’s central character is Jim who lives in a village that was formerly a peaceful and happy place. With the loss of fish and subsequently lack of money for the fisherman of the village, Jim’s favourite boat is out of bounds. On his journey to school he comes across a dolphin trapped in seaweed and vows to help the animal. The village get together and help the dolphin back into the sea, he begins an unlikely friendship with the creature and names him Smiler (after the dolphin’s incessant smile).

Jim and Smiler form a partnership with the latter taking Jim on rides on his back, until one day Smiler does not return and Jim becomes sorrowful. Eventually the village welcomes a swarm of dolphins and serenity is resumed.

I enjoyed teaching this book and found it to be a great work by Morpurgo and Forman that evoke plenty of emotions within their readers. The book has great illustrations but most of all has several lessons of loss and grief but also selflessness. I think it would be ideal if this were to be taught in year two or KS1 with introductions to sea creatures. With its powerful language and imagery it could be a class text or used, guided reading and for independent reading. A nice link with Geography can also be of value with this book.

[Andrew Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children's relationships with animals are a theme which runs throughout Michael Morpurgo's corpus of children's writing, and as the title suggests, 'Dolphin Boy' is very much in a similar vein. Rather like Michael in Kensuke's Kingdom, Jim loves sailing on his father's boat - except that Jim's father is a fisherman and their boat ('Sally May', again redolent of Kingdom's 'Peggy Sue') remains around the coast of a little fishing village somewhere on the coast of the British Isles. With the demise of the fishing industry in the area, it appears the local community has an employment crisis threatening its very livelihood, until Jim discovers and rescues a beached dolphin stranded on the village's shoreline. As he builds an ever closer bond with Smiler - the name with which he christens his new cetacean companion - Jim unwittingly builds a new source of sustenance for the villagers in the form of tourism, as ever more dolphins gather along the coast and around the fishing boats offshore. Whilst many children will instinctively be engaged by the book's animal-human relationships, there are many deeper messages for UKS1/LKS2 pupils available: firstly about caring for the environment and its zoological inhabitants; secondly about community spirit in the way the whole village gathers to help Jim aid the dolphin; thirdly how environmental and wildlife concerns can nevertheless support humans in earning their livelihood - a business doesn't have to be ecologically damaging in order to succeed! This could therefore link easily to animal classification and habitats in Science, survival and organisation of human communities in Geography, or caring for each other in PSHE. Children could compare or even visit real-life villages around the UK on field trips, or study marine life alongside visits to an aquatic centre. Older children might even be able to consider the ways in which financial sustainability and employment over generations have changed: fishing was once one of the UK's biggest industries, but nowadays it has statistically been replaced by tourism which constituted 8.2% of UK GDP (£114 billion annually) since 2009. Michael Foreman once again illustrates in characteristic style for Morpurgo and his beautifully painted coastline sunsets could inspire an art project for pupils, maybe recreating in painting or sculpture their own local cliffs and beaches, or even the whole of the UK, learning of course the names of many locations at the same time! Quentin Blake's quote on the back cover argues Foreman turns the book 'into a special occasion', and I feel it certainly provides classes with the opportunity to access a breadth of memorable and engaging learning about the world and wildlife around us.

[Christina Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found in my local library.
This story will ring true for anyone who has grown up in a coastal community as fishing villages are often ghost towns due to a variety of pressures. Some have survived and even thrived as a result of tourism generated by dolphins, whales and other sea life. This book is a great way to introduce these issues, accompanied by lovely illustrations, but there is not much to the story so I don't imagine that it will stand up to repeated rereadings.

[Jocelyn Hee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an ok read, the story was too predictable. It does not quite meet the standard of picture books of today with more clever plots and quirky surprises. It reads like stories or yesterday.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple story, simply written.

[Mesca Elin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice children story about, helping, working together, hope and friendship

[Bledvar Albekell]

Simple and hopeful, but doesn't disappoint. Good illustrations for the kids.

[Daniel Cracknell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim is a young boy living in a struggling fishing village. Upon meeting a stranded dolphin, Jim and the rest of the villagers are distracted from their worries in a bid to save the dolphin. As a result, the dolphin embarks upon a relationship with Jim that brings a new sense of hope to all of the villagers.
I like the underlying message that when people act selflessly, they are giving themselves hope and are becoming engaged in a reciprocal process of giving and receiving, linking strongly to PSED. There is also a possible hint towards sustainability and responsible fishing which could also be linked to Geography.
'Dolphin Boy' has been beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman and would make an engaging read for Year 2 onwards. It would be equally suitable for independent reading and could be used effectively to support creative writing and guided reading due to detailed illustrations and descriptive language.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a real problem reading Michael Morpurgo's books. I expect all of them to be as fantastic as Private Peaceful, and of course they're not. This one is ok. A boy befriends a dolphin that has washed up on the shore of his Cornish fishing village. It changes the boy and ultimately the fortunes of the town. It's a book that hints at lots of things- overfishing, the loss of traditional lifestyles, ecotourism, and the fascination that most people have for dolphins, without really directly addressing them. Still an interesting little tale, that I suspect my 8 year old will enjoy more than I did.

[Hannotsolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my three year old son. We live in Cornwall and so he was really taken by the familiar-looking fishing village and the imagery. We both really enjoyed the story and he could identify with the boy living the dolphin and giving it a name, a stage he is beginning to enter in naming his toys and having favourites. He also loved the idea that the boys could dive of the quay and swim with dolphins, something he's very keen to try for himself now... hmmm...

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The students at day care enjoyed this story a lot before our visit to the Mystic Aquarium. I'll likely read it to them again.