Struan Murray . . . effortlessly joins the ranks of the most skilled world-creators . . . Unpredictable, filled with plot twists and shades of moral grey, Orphans of the Tide is both gripping and original. -- Kitty Empire - The Observer This story is well-plotted, pacy and has interesting characters, but I found it as wet, dreary and pessimistic as a rainy Sunday in Oldham. I did read it to the end and did have some empathy with the characters, but oh for some levity!

The children in my class who read this book couldn’t stop telling me about it. They really were hooked from the get-go and would be desperate to talk about the plot with me at break and lunchtimes. Struan Murray (Author) Struan Murray is Scottish and grew up in Edinburgh, the youngest of a large, rowdy family of redheads. His first publication was a drawing in Pingu Magazine, aged seven, but his debut novel, Orphans of the Tide has attracted rather more critical acclaim. When he's not writing, Struan is a lecturer at the University of Oxford. Struan Murray . . . effortlessly joins the ranks of the most skilled world-creators . . . Unpredictable, filled with plot twists and shades of moral grey, Orphans of the Tide is both gripping and original. Kitty Empire, The Observer I would also like to point out that in the first two books the author stayed on one person, the main character, Ellie. What I mean by staying is it was all written from her point of view but still in third person. However, during the third book the author switched from around four different people's points of view, which made it even more confusing and caused me too dislike the ending even more.Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - I can't put my finger on all the little things that I couldn't properly fit into the puzzle of this story. Again and again, what I felt while reading was as if the author (and by extension the editor and the publisher) of this book cared solely for how thing looked and little for what the could mean. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License and the GFDL; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. I chose this cos it was MG and once in a while I try one of those. But to be honest, what made this MG and not YA? I have no idea. The age of the character? I fear I must have missed it cos I had no age for her. She could have been 12, she could have been 20. She lived alone, worked as an inventor/fixing things. She had left the orphanage. Her best friend seemed to work there. Yes I saw her more as 18. But my bad for not hearing it.

Compellingly inventive and unpredictable, kept me guessing right till the end. - Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild The middle of the book, however, was great. Full of action, it was perfectly in sync with how I thought the book should have gone. I do like that the gods still living, weren't just killed off. So Ellie does have to continue battling her very real inner demon for her mental health of not humanity, but she's stronger now and very able to do so. Gripping . . . with a touch of Frances Hardinge's bizarre brilliance Imogen Russell Williams, The Guardian Arriving on the shores of a colourful tropical island ruled by a mysterious queen, it seems they might just have found the perfect new home.Education Shed Ltd, Severn House, Severn Bridge, Riverside North, Bewdley, Worcestershire, UK, DY12 1AB Compellingly inventive and unpredictable, kept me guessing right till the end. Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild Objectives: Explore the theme of fear in an extract; write a diary entry from Ellie’s perspective; explain the significance of plot twists in Orphans of the Tide. Struan manages to continue the story but also to remind us of key moments of the previous books. I love the addition of another diary and how it propels the story forward, I kept saying one chapter more but was unable to just stop! I was on the edge of my chair and just had to continue.

The epilogue of the story suggests that Seth and Ellie’s adventures have only just begun. Your class task is to write a sequel to the story. They will use the grid in the resource to plan what will happen to the two characters as they set off in search for a new home (possibly the island which they saw on the edge of the map when they were searching the Inquisitor’s stronghold). Murray's debut novel certainly didn't disappoint.The set-up grabbed me from the start; an independent female inventor living in the only city left in the world (after The Drowning) saves a mysterious boy who has just emerged from the belly of a beached whale... After reading Chapter 15 of Orphans of the Tide, your class will complete this comprehension which includes retrieval, vocabulary and inference type questions.Orphans of the Tide is an amazing book. It starts very suddenly when a girl called Ellie cuts open a whale to reveal a boy called Seth. Together, Ellie and Seth have to face the dangerous inquisitors to prove he is innocent.