Product Description

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 . . .

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46059 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Review
' . . . gripping, beautiful and brilliantly written . . . Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book.' (The Sunday Times )

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

'A stunning debut . . . An extraordinary book.' (The Sunday Telegraph )

'the most lyrical children's author now writing' (The Guardian )

'Truly original, mysterious and affecting . . . Almond treads with delicate certainty, and the result is something genuine and true'

(Philip Pullman, The Guardian )

'Tremendously innovative, highly original and very moving.'

(Melvin Burgess )

'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.'

(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 Irish Times )

About the Author
David Almond is twice winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award. His first novel, SKELLIG, won the Whitbread Children's Award and the Carnegie Medal. His second, KIT'S WILDERNESS, won the Smarties Award Silver Medal, was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Award. THE FIRE-EATERS won the Whitbread, the Smarties Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and his most recent novel, CLAY, was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award, and the Carnegie Medal. David is widely regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative children's authors writing today, and his books are bestsellers all over the world. He lives with his family in Northumberland.

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Customer Reviews

Skellig,an excellent read
I read this book to my class of Year 5 children and they thouroughly enjoyed it.The story has lots of themes and patterns within it,some rather sad, which provided some excellent points for discussion. After listening to the story, the children produced some amazing written work.
As a class, we would recommend this book to people of any age over 9.

Beautiful
This book is mind blowing. Slight though it is, and for children though it is supposed to be, it is one of the books I would insist is on every adult bookshelf, because if you haven't read it, you haven't lived.
The story revolves around a teenage boy whose parents have just had a baby. The baby is premature and seriously ill. The parents spend all their time at the hospital leaving the boy to pretty much fend for himself.
The story is told by him, about his feelings about what is happening to him. He meets a girl whose mother home schools her and whose outlook on life is very different to that of his friends who just want to play football and mess around. The friendship is a lifeline at a time where he needs a way to understand the world around him.
In the middle of all of this, they make a startling discovery. an angel is living in the boy's garage, but like no angel you will ever imagine...
This sounds fantastic, but Almond's down to earth narrative, seen through the eyes of an ordinary boy roots this book in a reality which makes the miraculous so believable. The sparseness of the prose allows the beauty of the book to bloom and find a place in your heart. It is profoundly moving and at the end of the book I found that I was crying like a baby.
Amazingly powerful.

An Easily Forgettable Book
Skellig by David Almond is a piece of literature that will definitely become dormant in my mind and many others. In my opinion David Almond created some strong characters like Michael, Mina and Michael's baby sister but he didn't develop the character of Skellig or his personality. This just wasn't the book for me.
I did not find this book intriguing at all. The chapters were very short and the speech very blunt so you do not always understand what the characters are trying to say. Even so, David Almond did manage to create a few images in my mind. A good example of this is his description of the garden in Michael's new house, "then I went back to the wilderness we called the garden."
When you read between the lines, Skellig is not a book about finding a man in your garage or having a baby sister on her deathbed but a book about finding yourself. At the start of the book Michael is trying to fit in with all his football loving friends and not paying much attention to his teachers but once he's met Mina he becomes a completely different person. He can be himself and knows without saying anything that Mina will understand him. He also makes an effort with his schoolwork and, although he still plays football, he no longer cares about fitting in. For me this didn't work as I like books with a bit of action. Another reason I didn't enjoy this book was that it was very short. I prefer to read short books in a short length of time but this time I had no choice but to read this book over a long period of time.
Skellig is not the book for me but maybe you will enjoy it. I would score this book four out of ten and can be pretty sure it will be easily forgotten.
Jenna age 10