Skellig

Product Information

Don't get me wrong. I liked Skellig plenty. I liked it enough that I've recommended it to Te and Los, and Scoutie has already started reading it, and I blew through it at top speed, wanting to see how things played out. 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 newborn sister. His sister is extremely ill, and it is uncertain whether she will live. One day, Michael wanders into the garage and discovers a very strange man. Who is this man? Will Michael’s sister be alright?

My first thought after reading it was that if it had been an adult novel I would have loved it. As a novel it felt more like a very nice sketch of an interesting and magical story than what I would like from a finished book. Not that there seemed to be anything necessarily missing from the book, it just didn't seem fully flushed out, like there was more he could have done with the book to given it more depth and expanded some of the themes in even more interesting ways. Of course doing so would have made this probably not a YA novel, but rather moved him into the magical-realism worlds of someone like Jonathan Carroll or Nicholas Christopher. But that said I found this really enjoyable, but in a teasing way that made me want more of something that there was no more to have.

Skellig is an emotive tale revolving around strong themes of nurture, the value of friendship, trust and love (to name but a few). The story centres around a 10-year old boy named Michael and the unique discovery he stumbles upon after entering a forbidden garage in his garden. The interesting point to note, regarding the creature that Michael discovers and which Almond does very well, is that we as readers never get a direct label for Michael’s discovery. We simply know him as “Skellig”. The clues we are given in the text are that Skellig is crippled with Arthritis; has lived on a diet of insects and spiders and is surrounded by owl pellets. Skellig continues to recite numbers from a Chinese takeaway and later in the tale we discover, through Michael, that Skellig has wings. A story full of heart and magic and big confusing emotions, elegantly told by a master craftsman. A perfect piece of art Michael has just moved home. His sister is very ill. Mum and Dad are either worrying about his sister or worrying about the house. But who is worrying about Michael? As Michael tries to deal with this whirlwind of emotions he stumbles across Skellig, a strange creature hiding in his Garage. Along with his new found friend Mina, Michael embarks on a journey to discover who Skellig is and who he himself is. At first Michael thinks he's imagining the man, but soon the man talks, and Michael can see that he's in a lot of pain. "Arthur Itis" is what the man calls it. Michael puts his own troubles aside to care for the man, feeding him left over Chinese takeaway - #27 and #53, ale and aspirin. I also remember how quiet this story is, and how it’s poignant and beautiful and occasionally uncomfortable to read. And I remember that joyous ending. And I also remember how I wished I had friends I could communicate with using an owl call. “Hoot. Hoot hoot hoot.” And I remember Whisper and how much I used to want a cat just like him.

Humorous, heart-stopping and haunting...an emotional roller-coaster of a read with a cliff-hanger of a conclusion. Inspired and inspiring. West, Dave (19 March 2008). "Sky One sets three major HD series". Digital Spy . Retrieved 2 September 2008. When I was little and told to say my prayers (by hypocritical lapsed catholics, by the way) I would start by asking that my family be safe (yeah, that didn't work out so well now, did it?) and then hit the trivial things like asking that Jimmy Watts would notice me or maybe my mom could buy me the new Olivia Newton John album? Ah... to be so oblivious. All these topics are covered from a child’s perspective therefore help children consider the feelings that may arise when someone falls ill, or they are moving in to a new house or making new friends. The worksheet has a notepad design that children are encouraged to draw, write and doodle on to help them get into the mind of the different characters and have a better understanding of the story. How does this Skellig worksheet teach children?

This book brings together a lot of fears and worries that may affect children, whether it be directly within their family or understanding a friend’s situation. The book touches on new babies coming into a family, moving house, illness and possible death within the family and making new but different friends. The story talks about Michael, a young boy, who moves into a new house with his family and discovers a strange frail creature in the decrepit, crumbling garage next to their house. Together with his new friend and neighbour Mina, Michael decides to help the creature and slowly discovers more and more about his intriguing and mysterious identity. Through their adventure, which almost seems like a dream, both children’s lives and view of the world is changed forever. But there is more to the book than that: the way the friendship between the two children develops. Mina shows Michael a whole new approach to learning and investigating the world through pictures and words, and that is what ultimately keeps him sane during the long hours of waiting for his dad to call from the hospital. Where does all this lead? What do children wish for? What do you do when your baby sister is in the hospital tied to wires and tubes? Do miracles really exist? ' You have to believe in magic' Olivia once crooned. 'If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.' says Blake. A strong theme of relationships and the importance of those relationships flow throughout the story. The most notable relationships are those that involve Michael’s relationship with Skellig; his relationship with his younger sister who has a heart condition and his relationship with his friend Mina.

The story is fresh and engaging and will have children leaving behind their games consoles in favor of an adventure. What will they discover? I watched a spider scrambling across his face. He caught it in his fingers and popped it in his mouth. This book revolves around a 10-year old boy, Michael. When Michael moves into a crumbling, old house with an ancient garage that he cannot resist going into, he encounters a mysterious creature named Skellig. Slowly they come to trust and care for each other and help each other through the most difficult phase of their lives.Several themes are dealt with throughout the book. One such theme is the impact of friendship, mostly resulting from Michael’s befriending of the eccentric home-schooled neighbour Mina, who goes on to introduce him to the world of nature, birds and poems. Subtle religious themes are also encountered throughout, based on Michael’s suspicion that Skellig could be an angel, and the inclusion of William Blake poetry from Mina. Finally, the central theme of unknowing and ambiguity resonates across the story, and teaches that sometimes it is alright to not know the details. Skellig is a fiction book for children aged 9 – 12 about a young boy called Michael, who, whilst moving in to a new house and having to deal with his sister being ill, discovers a mystical creature in his garage. The book balances somewhere between reality and fantasy as the setting for the book is an ordinary suburban street until this fantastical being is found. If young adult fiction can give you a new experience of an old classic without being condescending and purely educational, that is a good thing indeed!