Kensuke's Kingdom

Published in 1999, Michael Morpurgo’s Kensuke’s Kingdom is a middle-grade historical fiction/adventure novel. The story follows a young boy named Michael who is washed ashore on a remote island after falling overboard from his family’s yacht. Michael soon encounters and befriends Kensuke, a reclusive Japanese man with a mysterious past. The novel won The Children’s Book Award and explores themes of survival, nature, and friendship. In 2023, Kensuke’s Kingdom was adapted into an animated film that was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Children’s & Family Film.

This guide is based on the 2003 Scholastic e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of mental health concerns, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty and death, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

When Michael is 10 years old, both of his parents lose their jobs, and his father proposes that the family sail around the world. They purchase a yacht named the Peggy Sue and spend months training to sail. On the day of their voyage, Michael’s best friend, Eddie Dodds, brings Michael a soccer ball that becomes the boy’s cherished lucky charm.

At sea, Michael’s family grows closer, journeying to Africa, Brazil, and Australia. Off the coast of Sydney, a series of storms blows the yacht off course. One night, Michael, his dog, Stella, and the soccer ball fall overboard. Clinging to the soccer ball helps Michael stay afloat until he eventually falls asleep.

Michael wakes up on an island with Stella. Michael searches for fresh water and food but finds nothing. The next morning, he discovers someone has left two bowls of water, strips of raw fish, and several bananas for him and Stella. He manages to start a fire using a piece of glass, but an elderly man douses it. The man introduces himself as Kensuke, forbids Michael from setting fires, and instructs the boy to stay on one side of the island. Kensuke leaves food and water for Michael and Stella every night and gives them bedding to keep mosquitoes away.

Despite Kensuke’s help, Michael begins to view the man as his captor because Kensuke won’t let him light a signal fire—his best chance of being rescued and reuniting with his family. Michael goes against Kensuke’s wishes, lighting a signal fire when he sees a Chinese junk, but Kensuke immediately destroys the blaze. When Michael tries to swim in the ocean against Kensuke’s instructions, he’s stung by a jellyfish whose toxins leave him immobilized and in agonizing pain for weeks while Kensuke takes care of him.

After Michael heals, Kensuke teaches him how to fish, forage, and paint. He asks Michael to teach him English, allowing them to share their stories. Michael tells Kensuke about his childhood home, the Peggy Sue’s voyage, and how he came to the island. Kensuke reveals that he pulled Michael from the ocean and returns his soccer ball to him.

Kensuke tells Michael his life story. He was an obstetrician in Nagasaki, Japan, and had a wife named Kimi and a son named Michiya. During World War II, he served as a Navy doctor. American planes bombed his ship, killing everyone on board except for him. By listening to the ship’s radio, Kensuke learned that the United States bombed Nagasaki, where his entire family lived, and that Japan had surrendered. The ship drifted ashore on the island, and the peace of the island gradually restored his will to live.

Shortly after Kensuke moved everything useful from the warship into a cave, a storm sank the vessel. American soldiers came to the island. Kensuke hid but was close enough to hear them bragging about how everyone in Nagasaki was dead. Many years passed without anyone else coming to the island, and Kensuke befriended a group of orangutans and learned how to live off the land by observing them. About a year before Michael washed ashore, poachers came to the island and slaughtered many gibbons while Kensuke and the orangutans hid.

Kensuke rescued Michael and Stella the night that they fell overboard. However, due to his deeply rooted anger against humanity, Kensuke didn’t want to be near the boy at first. He knew that the sea was full of dangerous jellyfish after the storm, and he feared that the boy would die after he was stung. Kensuke ends his story by saying that Michael is his family now.

Michael feels close to Kensuke, but part of him still longs to find his parents. He attempts to send a message to them in a bottle. Although Kensuke is deeply wounded when he discovers the message, he eventually accepts that the boy misses his parents just as he always thinks of his own family. Kensuke proposes that they build an enormous beacon so that they will be prepared when the next ship appears. Michael doesn’t want to leave Kensuke behind, so the boy encourages him to consider returning to Japan. One night, they work together to protect hundreds of newborn turtles on their journey to the ocean. Inspired by the infant turtles’ courage, Kensuke says that he will leave the island with Michael.

The poachers return, and Kensuke and Michael lead the orangutans to safety. Kensuke is deeply troubled by the senseless destruction the men wreak on the island. Weeks later, the Peggy Sue appears on the horizon, and Kensuke and Michael light the beacon. As the yacht approaches, Kensuke explains that he has decided to stay on the island because he feels that he is from a different world and because he wants to protect the orangutans. Kensuke asks Michael to make him three promises—that he will paint every day, that they will never forget one another, and that he will tell no one about Kensuke for 10 years so that no one will come to disturb his peace. Michael agrees, weeping as they say their goodbyes.

The Peggy Sue reaches the island and Michael’s parents embrace him, shedding joyful tears. Michael learns that his parents spent nearly a year searching for him, but his mother never gave up hope that he was alive.

Four years after Michael publishes the story of his life, he receives a letter from Kensuke’s son, Michiya Ogawa. Michiya writes that he and Kimi—who died three years ago—survived the bombing of Nagasaki. Michael accepts Michiya’s invitation to visit him in Japan and share his father’s story.