Secret Heart

Name: Secret Heart
Brand: Hachette UK
Availability: InStock
Author: David Almond
ISBN: 9781844569311

Author: David Almond

Narrator: David Almond

Unabridged: 2 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books

Published: 02/07/2013

Categories: Children's Fiction

Synopsis

Joe lives with his mother in Helmouth, a forgotten village crumbling on the edge of the suburbs. His days are spent trying to evade the demands of school and the taunts of the local bullies. Joe's friend, Stanny, insists that Joe must toughen up, become a survivor - and he is adamant that a weekend in the wilderness with Stanny and his Uncle Joff will do the trick.

Into Joe's unhappy world comes Hackenschmidt's Circus, and with it the strangely familiar Corinna. She tells Joe, 'In the circus there is a secret heart ' - a place of contained wildness where the barriers between the human and animal world are fluid. And indeed, Joe's dreams are already stalked by a tiger, so real that his skin and its pelt begin to feel as one ...

A stunning novel from the author of the modern children's classic Skellig - winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.

(P) Hodder Children's Books 2001

About David Almond

David Almond is the author of Skellig, My Name is Mina, Island, Bone Music and many other novels, stories, picture books, opera librettos, songs and plays. His work is translated into 40 languages, and is widely adapted for stage and screen. His major awards include the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Awards, the Eleanor Farjeon Award, the Michael L Printz Award (USA), Le Prix Sorcières (France), the Nonino International Prize, the James Kruss Prize and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. He has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world's most prestigious prize for children's authors. In 2021, David was awarded an OBE for services to literature.David speaks at festivals and conferences around the world. He is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting, inspirational and innovative children's authors writing today. He has one amazing daughter. He lives in Newcastle, the city in which he was born.www.davidalmond.com

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chris on March 26, 2014

I should finish my second reading of this amazing book today. David Almond is one of my favorite authors, and this is one of--if not the top of my list--my favorite novels of his. The emotional tone is simply astounding. And he shows how beautiful writing can be, even without sentence variety. He sta......more

Goodreads review by Sophie on June 23, 2021

Wonderful fable told with warmth and tenderness and an understanding of how it feels to be the odd one out.......more

Goodreads review by Evie on September 21, 2014

I guess I didn't get it. (view spoiler)[ It started off with a good premise, but as it went on… I suppose it wasn't my style. The plot is thin-- Joe has to bring the spirit of the tiger into the wilderness? And he can feel the spirits of the animals inside him, especially the tiger. /sigh/ But. So many things aren't r (hide spoiler)]......more

Goodreads review by Len on August 22, 2023

The circus arrives at the small northern town of Helmouth. The name is a little red herring as nothing wicked that way comes. It doesn't have to, it's already there in the form of petty crime and bullying and one idiot adult who likes killing animals. The circus is really quite benign if a little et......more

Goodreads review by Priyanka on June 03, 2018

This story is about a boy named Joe Maloney. Who lives more inside his head than outside. He is not a very good student at the school. He has trouble with his speech. He sees things, creatures, just on the edge of eyesight that other people don't. Joe lives with his mother in Hellmouth. His days are......more

Quotes

A sooty darkness permeates the writing, illuminated by sudden bursts of sunlight and the music of skylarks. The Daily Telegraph

There is a mystical quality about David Almond's writing that makes him quite unlike any other author Financial Times

A powerful story of love, persecution and freedom, it is his best novel to date (and that's saying something). The Scotsman

David Almond's books are strange, unsettling, wild things...like all great literature, beyond classification. An exhilarating, though not always easy read for anyone who, like Joe, has tigers and larks in their heart. The Guardian

Mysterious and enigmatic. The Bookseller

A life-changing story of hope, love and encouragement for a boy who's been all but written off. The Sunday Times

A lyrical and haunting story. The Daily Telegraph

A subtle, sophisticated book. Almond's speciality is an enchanting blend of the magical and the real. The Times

This gripping book will enrich your soul and fire your imagination. The Daily Telegraph