The beautiful and haunting novel that launched David Almond as one of the best children's writers of today When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister's illness, Michael's world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain. Then, one Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the old, ramshackle garage of his new home, and finds something magical. A strange creature - part owl, part angel, a being who needs Michael's help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health, while his baby sister languishes in the hospital. But Skellig is far more than he at first appears, and as he helps Michael breathe life into his tiny sister, Michael's world changes for ever . . . Skellig won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award and is now a major Sky1 feature film, starring Tim Roth and John Simm. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award. Powerful and moving - The Guardian This newly jacketed edition celebrates 15 years of this multi-award-winning novel.
A stunning new story from the bestselling, prize-winning David Almond, bringing us the magic that surrounds the everyday. Mina, from the unforgettable Skellig and My Name is Mina , journeys to Japan and discovers another reality that is visible to all of us, if you look closely enough. This wonderful tale transports Mina to Kyoto, Japan, an entirely new and different cultural landscape, where she encounters the magic of origami and an older magic, too. She accepts an origami paper boat from a woman on the bus. ''Ko-ni-chi-wa,'' says the woman, ''Take it.'' And then, ''Float it.'' Mina watches as the woman''s fingers fold another elaborate paper form: creased, tugged and teased into the shape of a paper bird. She imagines what it would be like to be a sheet of paper in the woman''s hands, to become a paper Mina. The crowds around her disappear and Kyoto is gone. This is a beautiful story from one of the masters of magical realism, David Almond, with stunning illustrations from Kirsti Beautyman. "Spell-binding... impossible to resist... breathless, intoxicating prose. [Almond''s] books seem to exist in their own otherworldly universe, outside all the trends in modern publishing, yet resolutely of the now." The Glasgow Herald "David Almond''s books are strange, unsettling wild things - unfettered by the normal constraints of children''s literature. They are, like all great literature, beyond classification." The Guardian "[David Almond] is that rare thing - a writer of lucid, mature elegance, who can still see the world through adolescent eyes." The Daily Telegraph "A writer of visionary Blakean intensity." The Times "A master storyteller." The Independent
From the winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award the Carnegie Medal and the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award comes the extraordinary prequel to the award-winning Skellig.
I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both... knew how they lived and how they died.
Claire is Ella Grey's best friend. She's there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story - as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.
A lyrical and gripping read from a multi-award winning author. Davie and his best friend Geordie watch the arrival of a new boy, Stephen Rose, in their town. Their encounter with the mysterious Stephen is as incredible as it is menacing, and as the true shocking story of Stephen's past slowly emerges, Davie's life is changed forever.
