Skellig - Hardcover

Almond, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038532653X ISBN 13: 9780385326537

Publisher: Delacorte Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Feeling helpless to aid his frantic parents when his baby sister falls ill, Michael explores the dilapidated garage of his family's new house, where he discovers a beast-like creature tucked away amid the spider webs and debris.

About this title

Review:

Michael can feel his sick baby sister's heart beating inside him, and as long as he can feel it he knows she is alive. But as her condition becomes life-threatening and the family faces the nightmare of an operation to save her life, Michael turns to his new friend Mina and the strange being, Skellig, who has been living beneath the crumbling garage at the family's new home.

In this most delicate and tender story of a young boy living in fear of death and coming to terms with life, you can almost touch the indefinable magic that Skellig--part owl, part human, part everything and nothing--brings to Michael's unsettled world.

With the gentle touch of an angel's breath, Almond, in his first novel for children, lets his characters think, feel and believe without overwhelming sentimentality. A dream of a book to touch even the hardest of hearts. --Susan Harrison

Review:

Lyrical, innovative and unforgettably moving. (Sunday Express (Cressida Cowell))

Lyrical, innovative and moving...unforgettably moving (Cressida Cowell Sunday Express)

The book I wish I'd written is Skellig by David Almond. Almond's book has a great sense of the mysterious; we are left with a sense of wonder. I wish that I had written it! (Joseph Delaney Books For Keeps)

This modern classic has been reissued in a beautiful 15th anniversary edition (Lorna Bradbury The Sunday Telegraph)

An exquisitely crafted book with a mystical core (The Daily Telegraph)

The sort of children's book that makes adults find excuses to read more of them (Times Educational Supplement)

Hard to put down (Liz Lightfoot The Daily Telegraph)

Refusing to read this book on the grounds that you are not a child makes as much sense as refusing to read crime fiction because you are not a criminal. A deep and lovely book. (Nick Hornby The Times)

An exquisite book (The Sunday Telegraph)

Brings Magical Realism to working-class Northeast England (i (The Independent))

A story full of heart and magic and big confusing emotions, elegantly told by a master craftsman. A perfect piece of art (Lucy Christopher Big Issue (london))

Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination (The Guardian)

Humorous, heart-stopping and haunting...an emotional roller-coaster of a read with a cliff-hanger of a conclusion. Inspired and inspiring. (Newcastle Journal)

A visionary story...a lyrical, magical kind of book which can be read on many different levels (The Daily Mail)

Voted Carnegie Medal's Number one Top Book of the past 70 years (The Times)

I can't eat a chinese takeaway without thinking about this strange and beautiful book about an angel who seems to have lost his way. (Gill Harvey The Big Issue)

A bookshelf essential. (The Guardian)

Deservedly popular (The Observer)

Powerful and moving (Guardian.co.uk)

A beautiful story which will enchant young and old alike (Western Morning News)

A modern classic

Listed as on the of the 100 Best Children's Books Ever (Novels)

(The Daily Telegraph)

One of those books that you can't put down (Junior Reviewer Conor Neison, aged 12 Evening Echo (Cork))

A quite extraordinary book. Tender, lyrical, yet it crackles with suspense. He makes the incredible utterly credible. A story which burns bright from first to last, and for long after the last is over. (Micheal Morpurgo)

... This is a tender and powerful tale which has a poetic and psychological accuracy. A marvellous and unnerving debut. (TES)

... A stunning debut ... An extraordinary book. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

...gripping, fascinating, a beautiful book. (JOAN AIKEN)

Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book. (THE SUNDAY TIMES)

A story of faith, written with equisite, heart-fluttering tenderness. It is an extraordinarily profound book, no matter what the age of the reader. (THE CHAIRMAN OF THE WHITBREAD JUDGES)

A fascinating new voice. (MELVIN BURGESS)

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 038532653X
• ISBN 13: 9780385326537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 182