Celebrate World Book Day with Michael Morpurgo
Your school is invited to join the internationally acclaimed author, one of Britain’s best-loved storytellers and long-term Born Free friend, at our webinar on 7 March 2024.
Born Free’s UK Education Team is excited to announce they will be joined by a very special guest, Michael Morpurgo OBE, for a World Book Day webinar on 7 March 2024.
Michael Morpurgo
The unique event will be a wonderful opportunity to hear award-winning author, Michael Morpurgo, read from and discuss his classic children’s novel The Butterfly Lion. For the past two years, Born Free has celebrated World Book Day with schools up and down the country, running webinars alongside authors and other inspirational figures to inspire children with stories about wildlife and nature.
Michael has written over 150 children’s books, many of which feature animals and wildlife as main themes, characters or even protagonists. A lifetime lover of animals and nature, Michael grew up spending much of his childhood outside, cycling past fields of wild hares and walking along the coastline under flocks of calling seabirds. Upon becoming a teacher, he realised the importance of connecting children to nature so to help develop empathy, enabling them to grow up understanding that every living thing on this planet has a place and matters.
This led Michael to write many of his stories about, and from the point of view of animals, as well as inspiring the launch of his and his wife’s charity, Farms for City Children. Michael has continued to write stories about wildlife through the years, to provide inspiration to young people, enabling them to learn about and understand that animals have feelings as well as their own wants and needs. Much like Born Free, a charity close to Michael’s heart, who, for the past forty years, has been campaigning for the needs of individual wild animals to be recognised.
In fact, it was a chance encounter with Born Free Co-Founder Dame Virginia McKenna DBE that turned out to be one of the sparks that inspired Michael to write The Butterfly Lion – a story about a young boy named Bertie, who rescues an orphaned white lion cub. This is why we are so incredibly excited to be able to share an exert from the story with schools through our World Book Day Webinar.
As well as hearing Michael read from the story, children watching will have the chance to ask about his connection with the story as well as learning more about what it’s like to be an author. They will also have the opportunity to hear about some of the lions that Born Free has helped to rescue and care for over the years, much like the protagonist in The Butterfly Lion.
If you’re a teacher or home educator, you can register your class, or school, or find out more information on our School Events page. We’re sure this will be an event you don’t want to miss!