Skellig
On sale
19th March 2009
Price: £7.99
CILIP Carnegie Medal, 1998
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 forever . . .
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.
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 forever . . .
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.
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Reviews
'Tremendously innovative, highly original and very moving.'
Lyrical, innovative and moving...unforgettably moving
. . . gripping, beautiful and brilliantly written . . . Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book.
'A deep and lovely book'
Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination.
An exquisitely crafted book with a mystical core
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.
A visionary story...a lyrical, magical kind of book which can be read on many different levels
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!
Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination
'Truly original, mysterious and affecting . . . Almond treads with delicate certainty, and the result is something genuine and true'
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.
A bookshelf essential.
Voted Carnegie Medal's Number one Top Book of the past 70 years
One of those books that you can't put down
A beautifully told modern fairytale.
the most lyrical children's author now writing
This modern classic has been reissued in a beautiful 15th anniversary edition
Hard to put down
The sort of children's book that makes adults find excuses to read more of them
Deservedly popular
A modern classic
Listed as on the of the 100 Best Children's Books Ever (Novels)
A story full of heart and magic and big confusing emotions, elegantly told by a master craftsman. A perfect piece of art
Humorous, heart-stopping and haunting...an emotional roller-coaster of a read with a cliff-hanger of a conclusion. Inspired and inspiring.
Brings Magical Realism to working-class Northeast England
Powerful and moving
'His characters are proper, complex portraits of children that don't succumb to the gender clichés prevalent in children's fiction.'
'A bookshelf essential.'
Lyrical, innovative and unforgettably moving.
A stunning debut . . . An extraordinary book.
An exquisite book
A beautiful story which will enchant young and old alike
'it's a wonderfully original and beautifully written story and, oddest of all for a children's book, it manages to address the unlikely theme of spirituality with beguiling delicacy.'