When Fishes Flew by Michael Morpurgo

 

2021

Nandi’s Great Aunt Ellie usually visits them every year. She comes from the Greek island of Ithaca. Nandi’s father is Greek but he and his family live in Australia.  Then Aunt Ellie stops coming; she is getting too old.  When Nandi is seventeen she works in a café and saves up in order to go and visit her great aunt.  She arrives at her aunt’s home only to find that Ellie has left.  According to neighbour and friend Maria, Ellie has been doing this regularly but always comes home safely.  Nobody knows where she goes. Nandi develops a friendship with a flying-fish who is the incarnation of the Greek god Proteus. He tells her much about her aunt’s past and present. Aunt Ellie returns, bringing with her two orphans from Syria. Aunt Ellie has worked all of her life caring for people less fortunate than herself.  Her young husband, Alexis, died less than a year after they were married. Nandi decides to live with her aunt and the two girls she has adopted. Every year she pays for her Australian family to come and stay for a few weeks.        

As ever Michael Morpurgo uses a rich voice to tell this story.

The text is accompanied by line drawings which illustrate the story.  There are also some maps.

The text is blocked and uses a simple font but one that has difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s. It is double-spaced. The text is 179 pages long.