Kensuke’s Kingdom – pages 67-70
I was coming out of the trees, loaded with wood up to my chin, when I realised there was much less smoke coming from the fire than there had been before, and no flames at all. Then, through the smoke, I saw him, the orang-utan. He was crouching down and scooping sand on to my fire. He stood up and came towards me, now out of the smoke. He was not an orang-utan at all. He was a man.
He was diminutive, no taller than me, and as old a man as I had ever seen. He wore nothing but a pair of tattered breeches bunched at the waist, and there was a large knife in his belt. He was thin, too. In places – under his arms, round his neck and his midriff – his copper brown skin lay in folds about him, almost as if he’d shrunk inside it. What little hair he had on his head and his chin was long and wispy and white.
I could see at once that he was very agitated, his chin trembling, his heavily hooded eyes accusing and angry. “Dameda! Dameda!” he screeched at me. This whole body was shaking with fury. I backed away as he scuttled up the beach towards me, gesticulating wildly with his stick, and haranguing me as he came. Ancient and skeletal he may have been, but he was moving fast, running almost. “Dameda! Dameda!” I had no idea what he was saying. It sounded Chinese or Japanese, maybe.
The Dancing Bear – page 10
Roxanne was about seven years old at the time. An orphan child, she lived with her grandfather, who was a dour and unloving man. She was a solitary girl, but never lonely, I think. At school, she appeared to be a dreamer, a thinker. After school, with her grandfather busy in his fields, she would often wander off by herself, watching rabbits, maybe, or following butterflies. She was forever going missing. Then her grandfather would come shouting around the village for her. When he found her, he would shake her or even hit her. I protested more than once, but was told to mind my own business. A friendless, bitter old man, Roxanne’s grandfather was interested in nothing unless there was some money in it. Roxanne was a nuisance to him. She knew it – and everyone knew it. But he was the only mother and father she had.
WALT compare and contrast characters
How do we meet the characters? / · 1st person
· Initially mistaken for
orang-utan / · 1st person
· Gives a few facts
· Says what he knows about her so far
What do they look like?
How do they feel? / · Don’t know yet
What do they say?
How do they speak? / · Does not speak
What are they like as a person? / · Written as though Kensuke is in front of us
Example opening paragraph:
The opening of ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ is written in the first person. At first Michael thinks Kensuke is an orang-utan but then he realises he is a man. Roxanne is also written in the first person, however we are just told some facts about her.
Connectives to show that two things are different:
although
however
whilst
but
whereas
Sentence frames:
Kensuke ______, whereas Roxanne ______.
______(about Kensuke)______. In contrast, ______(about Roxanne)______.
Although the reader is told___ __(about Kensuke) , we do not find out ___ __(about Roxanne) .
_____(about Kensuke) ______, however ______(about Roxanne) ______.
Kensuke is described as ______, but Roxanne is ______.