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Skellig

On sale

19th March 2009

Price: £7.99

CILIP Carnegie Medal, 1998

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780340997048
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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.

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Reviews

The Guardian
the most lyrical children's author now writing
Guardian.co.uk
Powerful and moving
The Irish Times
'His characters are proper, complex portraits of children that don't succumb to the gender clichés prevalent in children's fiction.'
The Sunday Times
. . . gripping, beautiful and brilliantly written . . . Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book.
Western Morning News
A beautiful story which will enchant young and old alike
Junior Reviewer Conor Neison, aged 12, Evening Echo (Cork)
One of those books that you can't put down
The Guardian
A bookshelf essential.
Lorna Bradbury, The Sunday Telegraph
This modern classic has been reissued in a beautiful 15th anniversary edition
The Times
Voted Carnegie Medal's Number one Top Book of the past 70 years
The Daily Telegraph
An exquisitely crafted book with a mystical core
The Irish Times
'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.'
Lucy Christopher, Big Issue (london)
A story full of heart and magic and big confusing emotions, elegantly told by a master craftsman. A perfect piece of art
The Times
'A deep and lovely book'
Gill Harvey, The Big Issue
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.
The Daily Telegraph
A modern classic Listed as on the of the 100 Best Children's Books Ever (Novels)
Melvin Burgess
'Tremendously innovative, highly original and very moving.'
The Guardian
'A bookshelf essential.'
Philip Pullman, The Guardian
'Truly original, mysterious and affecting . . . Almond treads with delicate certainty, and the result is something genuine and true'
Joseph Delaney, Books For Keeps
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!
The Sunday Telegraph
An exquisite book
The Sunday Telegraph
A stunning debut . . . An extraordinary book.
Liz Lightfoot, The Daily Telegraph
Hard to put down
Nick Hornby, The Times
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.
The Observer
Deservedly popular
The Daily Mail
A visionary story...a lyrical, magical kind of book which can be read on many different levels
The Guardian
Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination.
Sunday Express (Cressida Cowell)
Lyrical, innovative and unforgettably moving.
Cressida Cowell, Sunday Express
Lyrical, innovative and moving...unforgettably moving
The Guardian
Touched with a visionary intensity, this strange, hugely readable and life-affirming tale exercises every muscle of the imagination
Observer
A beautifully told modern fairytale.
Times Educational Supplement
The sort of children's book that makes adults find excuses to read more of them
i (The Independent)
Brings Magical Realism to working-class Northeast England
Newcastle Journal
Humorous, heart-stopping and haunting...an emotional roller-coaster of a read with a cliff-hanger of a conclusion. Inspired and inspiring.