Skellig
On sale
19th March 2009
Price: £8.99
CILIP Carnegie Medal, 1998
The bestselling story about love, loss and hope that launched David Almond as one of the best children’s writers of today. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread children’s book of the Year Award.
When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister’s illness, Michael’s world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain.
One Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the ramshackle garage of his new home and finds something magical. A strange creature – human? beast? bird? angel? – a being who needs Michael’s help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health.
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. David Almond is also winner of the Hans Christian Andersen award, the Nonino International Prize, and has received an OBE for services to literature. He is celebrated as – in the words of the Independent – ‘a master storyteller’.
‘This strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination’ Guardian
Skellig is now a major feature film, starring Tim Roth and John Simm.
When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister’s illness, Michael’s world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain.
One Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the ramshackle garage of his new home and finds something magical. A strange creature – human? beast? bird? angel? – a being who needs Michael’s help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health.
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. David Almond is also winner of the Hans Christian Andersen award, the Nonino International Prize, and has received an OBE for services to literature. He is celebrated as – in the words of the Independent – ‘a master storyteller’.
‘This strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination’ Guardian
Skellig is now a major feature film, starring Tim Roth and John Simm.
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Reviews
Lyrical, innovative and moving...unforgettably moving
Humorous, heart-stopping and haunting...an emotional roller-coaster of a read with a cliff-hanger of a conclusion. Inspired and inspiring.
'A bookshelf essential.'
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.
This modern classic has been reissued in a beautiful 15th anniversary edition
Deservedly popular
A story full of heart and magic and big confusing emotions, elegantly told by a master craftsman. A perfect piece of art
An exquisite book
. . . gripping, beautiful and brilliantly written . . . Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book.
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!
A beautifully told modern fairytale.
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.
Voted Carnegie Medal's Number one Top Book of the past 70 years
The sort of children's book that makes adults find excuses to read more of them
'Truly original, mysterious and affecting . . . Almond treads with delicate certainty, and the result is something genuine and true'
One of those books that you can't put down
A bookshelf essential.
Hard to put down
'Tremendously innovative, highly original and very moving.'
A modern classic
Listed as on the of the 100 Best Children's Books Ever (Novels)
A beautiful story which will enchant young and old alike
Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination.
'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.'
Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination
'His characters are proper, complex portraits of children that don't succumb to the gender clichés prevalent in children's fiction.'
An exquisitely crafted book with a mystical core
Powerful and moving
A stunning debut . . . An extraordinary book.
'A deep and lovely book'
Brings Magical Realism to working-class Northeast England
Lyrical, innovative and unforgettably moving.
A visionary story...a lyrical, magical kind of book which can be read on many different levels
the most lyrical children's author now writing