Skellig, David Almond
Skellig, David Almond
List: $18.99 | Sale: $13.29
Club: $9.49

Skellig

Author: David Almond

Narrator: David Almond

Unabridged: 3 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/07/2013


Synopsis

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 . . .

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.

(P) Hodder Children's Books 1999

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 Lisa of Troy on February 19, 2024

“Don’t be angry. Be my friend.” – David Almond, Skellig Written in 1998, Skellig is a young adult fantasy novella which focuses on a young boy named Michael. He is experiencing multiple high stress events in his life. He has moved into a very creepy old house, and his mother has just given birth to a......more

Goodreads review by Maggie on May 21, 2014

Well, that was excellent. This book is a brief mouthful of myth and hope and atmosphere. Reasons to read it? 1. There's a magical, irritable man in the narrator's garage. He likes Chinese take out and dead mice. 2. There is a wise and judgmental girl-neighbor who becomes the narrator's best friend. 3.......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on November 28, 2016

I read this about ten years ago now, and I’d completely forgotten about how much I loved it at the time. As soon as I picked it up and began reading it again I remembered why. The story of the rebirth of Skellig is a wonderful little tale; it is an allegory for the ever evolving nature of man, and h......more

Goodreads review by Charlotte on November 30, 2017

3.5 stars. Lovely little fable, only 170 pages I finished it pretty quickly and really enjoyed it. Sweet tale of friendship, family, love and imagination. Michael finds what he assumes to be a homeless man - hiding out in the garage of the new house he has moved into with his parents and baby sister......more

Goodreads review by Clare on March 05, 2008

I wept. Buckets. And was happier for it. My son had this book for a school project so I read it to help him out. He had to prise it from my fingers after an hour and a half, and I wanted to go back and read it again. It embodies all that I think is good in Young Adult fiction, an unspoiled, simple bu......more


Quotes

Lyrical, innovative and unforgettably moving. Sunday Express (Cressida Cowell)

Lyrical, innovative and moving...unforgettably moving Sunday Express

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! Books For Keeps

This modern classic has been reissued in a beautiful 15th anniversary edition The Sunday Telegraph

An exquisitely crafted book with a mystical core The Daily Telegraph

The sort of children's book that makes adults find excuses to read more of them Times Educational Supplement

Hard to put down The Daily Telegraph

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 Times

An exquisite book The Sunday Telegraph

Brings Magical Realism to working-class Northeast England i (The Independent)


Awards

  • CILIP Carnegie Medal