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Oona, the elephant Will is riding on the beach, begins to act strangely, shying away from the sea. Then the tsunami comes crashing in, and Oona begins to run. Except that when the tsunami is gone, Oona just keeps on running, taking Will with her. Trapped on her back, with no way to escape, Will grows hungry and thirsty. And then he wakes to find that Oona has waded into a river: This was the chance I’d been waiting for. The shore wasn’t that far away. I could make it. If there were crocodiles I did not care. I needed to have water. I had to drink.
I put a foot on the rail and leaped off. Before I knew it I was in the river, and swimming hard for the shore. Just a few strong strokes and I was there. I crouched at the river’s edge and drank till I could drink no more, filling myself to bursting. Breathless with drinking now, triumphant with it, I found myself laughing and whooping and slapping the water, filling the forest with my noise, sending thousands of screeching birds flying up out of the trees. ‘Look at them, Oona!’ I cried. ‘Look!’ Writing challenge Imagine that you are Oona. Write the scene where Will dives into the water from her perspective, describing what happened, what you thought of Will and how you felt. Morpurgo masterclass Just like Michael Morpurgo, you could use: - a mixture of short and longer sentences - description of what Oona can see Will doing - showing, not telling (explaining how Oona feels by what she does, rather than telling the reader)
Stuck for ideas?
Think carefully about what Oona might think about Will and his behaviour. She might: - be confused by him - be pleased that he has found water - think he’s having fun and want to join in - have forgotten he was on her back at all!
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