Brief summary
After their plane crash lands, four children, from wildly different walks of life, find themselves alone and fending for themselves. This book follows their struggle to survive in the vast, open wilderness of the Amazon Rainforest.
My comments
Danger hides around every corner as we follow the children on their perilous journey. In terms of pacing, The Explorer is quite a strange one, with a high degree of variation in the chapter lengths at times; this allowed me to read the longer chapters to my class to keep the story flowing, and use the shorter chapters for my children to work on. Running through the entire book is a strong appreciation of nature and its multi-faceted beauty. I won’t give anything away, but keep an eye out for the journey down the river, and the journey towards the cliff, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
The Explorer features a rich, vibrantly detailed landscape that springs from the page. I find that some books you can almost read without noticing the setting, as though it was written as an afterthought to fill the space between character actions. The Explorer does not fall into this category of books; the rainforest and everything contained within, is woven into the fabric of the story with the narrator dancing between setting and character with inquisitiveness and clarity.
A branch whipped in Fred’s face and the leaves blackened in the flame of his torch, but the wood was too green to catch fire.
Katherine Rundell
The book has a relatively small ensemble of main characters, which allows Katherine Rundell to go into great detail, making each one fully realised and believable. I loved Con in particular; her dry remarks and sarcastic comments often bounced off the page with natural humour. Whilst the setting helped draw my class in, the rich character development continuously kept them wanting to read on as they became deeply invested in the growth and lives of these four children.
It is evident that Katherine Rundell’s experiences and research guided her writing, and I felt as though I learned something new every time I picked the book up. Writing as the narrator, she imparts a wealth of knowledge about a range of fauna and flora, but always naturally, allowing the story to progress, unimpeded by the quick detours. Katherine Rundell also has a keen grasp of vocabulary, which has resulted in a book that is fantastic for broadening the general vocabulary of a class, whilst remaining easy to follow.
Class comments
My class all loved the character Con. One of my children liked how he hated Con at the beginning and warmed up to her, to the point at which she is now his favourite character. My class found Max revolting, and it was particularly enjoyable watching them all squirm.
Themes
- Survival and perseverance.
- An appreciation of the natural environment.
- Friendship and love.
- Self-discovery and emotional development.
Curricular links
- The Amazon Rainforest.
- The environment and conservation.
- Growth mindset (health and wellbeing).
Points to consider in class
- There is the very occasional use of low-level adult language. A few times the narrator also mentions that the characters were swearing, but without actually stating the specific words. None of this should cause too much of a problem in class, but it’s worth considering if you have very sensitive or younger children.
- The children, and other characters, drink, smoke, steal and tattoo themselves with knives. This is all dealt with quite tactfully, as would be expected from a children’s book, but it does mean the book is more suited to the far end of upper primary school and beyond.
- Loss of life and loved-ones is mentioned.
