By Henry Williamson (author) , Annabel Large (illustrator) Part of the A Puffin Book series
Hardback Pre-order. 17th June 2027 £14.99 £13.49
Paperback In Stock £8.99 £8.09
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This is the classic story of an otter living in the Devonshire countryside which captures the feel of life in the wild as seen through the otter's own eyes. It is full of joy and wonder, as well as death, sadness and brutality and yet it is an inspirational portrait of a vanished time, seen from Tarka's viewpoint.
Often harrowing, the story details Tarka's constant battle with the otter hounds, and in particular their fearsome leader Deadlock. Most of us will have never seen an otter in the wild or be likely to see one and yet once you've read the story of Tarka the Otter you will not only know exactly what they look like, you will also know their mannerisms and crucially having read the novel, you will also realise how man's impact almost drove them to extinction.
A message from Michael Morpurgo about Henry Williamson and his writing: 'It is a rare gift indeed for a storyteller to be a poet as much as a storymaker, to tell a tale so deeply engaging that the reader wants to know what will happen and never wants it to end, and yet at the same tells it in such a way as to leave a reader wide-eyed with amazement at the sheer intensity of feeling that can be induced by the word-magic of a poet. Henry Williamson is just such a story-maker poet.'
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Tarka the otter grows up with his mother and sisters, learning how to swim and catch fish, and to fear the sound of the hunter's horn. Soon he must fend for himself and he travels through rivers and woods, and out to sea in his fierce battle for survival. But eventually, chased by a pack of dog hounds, Tarka comes face to face with Deadlock, his most fearsome enemy...
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Henry Williamson was born in Brockley, south-east London. After leaving school he enlisted in the London Rifle Brigade and served as a private in the Flanders trenches, where he was present for the Christmas Truce of 1914. His experiences of the First World War continued to surface in his writing, most notably in the semi-autobiographical series of books A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight (1951-1969). He moved to north Devon in 1921, where, inspired by the books of Richard Jefferies, Williamson started writing lyrical essays and stories about wildlife, which included his two most popular and critically acclaimed creations: Tarka the Otter (1927) and Salar the Salmon (1935). He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1928, and with the £100 prize money bought a field and built himself a hut, where Salar was written.
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Tarka the otter grows up with his mother and sisters, learning how to swim and catch fish, and to fear the sound of the hunter's horn. Soon he must fend for himself and he travels through rivers and woods, and out to sea in his fierce battle for survival.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Tarka the Otter and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
Tarka the Otter features in the following genres: Books Reviewed by our Reader Review Panels, Recommendations, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Animal Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Recommended Children's eBooks, Featured Books for 9+ readers
Hardback, Paperback. £8.09, down from the £8.99 cover price. In Stock.
Tarka the Otter was written by Henry Williamson and published by Puffin Classics an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
Tarka the Otter has 332 pages
Yes it is part of A Puffin Book series
£8.09, reduced from £8.99. In Stock.
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