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Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. . . . What is this thing beneath the spiders' webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never before seen? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend, Mina. Together, they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever. . . .
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
April 28, 2009 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780739385883
- File size: 96818 KB
- Duration: 03:21:42
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 3.5
- Lexile® Measure: 490
- Interest Level: 6-12(MG+)
- Text Difficulty: 1-2
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Reviews
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AudioFile Magazine
The re-release of David Almond's audiobook begins with reflections on how his character Skellig inspired the novel a decade ago. This intriguing character and Almond's energetic reading usher listeners into an enigmatic plot. Who is the near-dead winged creature Michael discovers eating dead flies in the garage of his new home? Almond breathlessly delivers the mounting mysteries as Michael and his new friend, Mina, try to understand and care for the fragile Skellig. The production also includes Jane Entwistle's narration of Almond's short story "Journey to the Archaeopteryx," a story-within-a-story that takes place as Mina marvels about winged dinosaurs. Two selections from the SKELLIG opera provide musical interpretation of the story at the end of the production. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine -
Publisher's Weekly
March 29, 1999
British author Almond confidently narrates this recording of his first novel for young people. Michael and his family have just moved to a new home, which proves more dramatic than any of them had imagined. The house is a true fixer-upper, and Michael's new baby sister, born prematurely, is seriously ill. While his parents are consumed with worry about the baby, Michael is left alone with his own fears. But when he explores the house's crumbling garage, he discovers a frail creature with wings who becomes a most magical friend. It's hard to say whether the creature, which eventually introduces itself as Skellig, is a man, an angel or a ghost. As Michael and his new neighbor Mina spend time with Skellig, they learn about the transforming power of caring and love as they tend to Skellig's infirmities and cater to his fondness for Chinese takeout. Part mystery, part fantasy, Almond's story is made all the more memorable by his easygoing delivery and distinctive accent. Ages 8-up. -
AudioFile Magazine
When the match is excellent, who can imagine a better reader for any novel than its author? How serendipitous, then, to have David Almond read his mystical, mysterious novel, almost without pause for breath. When the baby comes too early, just after the move to the dilapidated old house, Michael is left too much to his own devices. It's then that he finds Skellig, nearly dead. Is he a man? An owl? An angel? And what does he have to teach Michael and his new friend, Mina, in his squeaky, breathy voice, about life and death and the connections between the two? Almond delivers a memorable reading of this seamless Printz Honor book. The story is punctuated by the most evocative and haunting music! T.B. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine -
Publisher's Weekly
Starred review from April 27, 2009
British novelist Almond makes a triumphant debut in the field of children's literature with prose that is at once eerie, magical and poignant. Broken down into 46 succinct, eloquent chapters, the story begins in medias res with narrator Michael recounting his discovery of a mysterious stranger living in an old shed on the rundown property the boy's family has just purchased: "He was lying there in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt. It was as if he'd been there forever.... I'd soon begin to see the truth about him, that there'd never been another creature like him in the world." With that first description of Skellig, the author creates a tantalizing tension between the dank and dusty here-and-now and an aura of other-worldliness that permeates the rest of the novel. The magnetism of Skellig's ethereal world grows markedly stronger when Michael, brushing his hand across Skellig's back, detects what appears to be a pair of wings. Soon after Michael's discovery in the shed, he meets his new neighbor, Mina, a home-schooled girl with a passion for William Blake's poetry and an imagination as large as her vast knowledge of birds. Unable to take his mind off Skellig, Michael is temporarily distracted from other pressing concerns about his new surroundings, his gravely ill baby sister and his parents. Determined to nurse Skellig back to health, Michael enlists Mina's help. Besides providing Skellig with more comfortable accommodations and nourishing food, the two children offer him companionship. In response, Skellig undergoes a remarkable metamorphosis that profoundly affects the narrator's (and audience members') first impression of the curious creature, and opens the way to an examination of the subtle line between life and death. The author adroitly interconnects the threads of the story--Michael's difficult adjustment to a new neighborhood, his growing friendship with Mina, the baby's decline--to Skellig, whose history and reason for being are open to readers' interpretations. Although some foreshadowing suggests that Skellig has been sent to Earth on a grim mission, the dark, almost gothic tone of the story brightens dramatically as Michael's loving, life-affirming spirit begins to work miracles. Ages 8-12.
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Formats
- OverDrive Listen audiobook
subjects
Languages
- English
Levels
- ATOS Level:3.5
- Lexile® Measure:490
- Interest Level:6-12(MG+)
- Text Difficulty:1-2
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