Books by David Almond
Two Plays: Skellig, Wild Girl, Wild Boy
by David Almond
David Almond turns his talents to drama in these two plays. Skellig is the dramatization of his highly acclaimed novel. What has Michael found in the derelict garage? What is this creature that lies in the darkness? Is it human, or a strange beast never seen before? And what will happen in the world when he carries it out into the light?
Wild Girl, Wild Boy is an original play produced in London by the Pop-Up Theatre company. Young Elaine has recently lost her father, and now she spends her days dreaming in the family’s garden, skipping school, unable to read or write. One day, Elaine conjures up a Wild Boy from spells and fairy seed. No one else can see him, and Elaine disappears into a world of fantasy where she and Wild Boy remember the teachings of her father. Will her mother ever come to understand?
These two plays introduce a new talent from the remarkable David Almond.
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Clay
by Colby Rodowsky, David Almond
"I'm Linda Clay McGee and I don't belong here."
Elsie McPhee and her brother, Tommy, are hiding a terrible secret. They've been kidnapped -- not by a stranger, but by their mother. It is lonely and scary always hiding, moving, and not being allowed to make friends or to talk to people. Elsie even remembers the kidnapping, but she's so scared of her mother, she can't say or do anything.
Then Tommy gets sick, and Elsie needs to get help -- fast. But that means she has to leave the apartment. What if she gets caught? Does Elsie have the courage to help her brother even if it means breaking her mother's rules?
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Clay
by Colby Rodowsky, David Almond
Fourteen-year-old Davie and his best friend, Geordie, are altar boys at their local Catholic Church. They’re full of mischief, but that all changes when Stephen Rose comes to town. Father O’Mahoney thinks it would be a good idea for Davie and Geordie to befriend him—maybe some of their good nature will rub off on this unhappy soul. But it’s Stephen who sees something special in Davie.
Stephen’s a gifted sculptor. One day as Davie looks on, Stephen brings a tiny figure to life. It’s a talent he has, the gift of creation—and he knows that Davie has this talent, too. Davie allows Stephen to convince him to help bring a life-size figure to life—and Clay is born. Clay is innocent, but Stephen has special plans for him.
What has Davie helped to unleash on the world?
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The Fire-Eaters
by David Almond
Bobby Burns knows he’s a lucky lad. Growing up in sleepy Keely Bay, Bobby is exposed to all manner of wondrous things: stars reflecting off the icy sea, a friend that can heal injured fawns with her dreams, a man who can eat fire. But darkness seems to be approaching Bobby’s life from all sides. Bobby’s new school is a cold, cruel place. His father is suffering from a mysterious illness that threatens to tear his family apart. And the USA and USSR are testing nuclear missiles and creeping closer and closer to a world-engulfing war.
Together with his wonder-working friend, Ailsa Spink, and the fire-eating illusionist McNulty, Bobby will learn to believe in miracles that will save the people and place he loves.
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Click
by Gregory Maguire, Roddy Doyle, Ruth Ozeki, Eoin Colfer, Linda Sue Park, Deborah Ellis, Nick Hornby, Tim Wynne-Jones, David Almond, Margo Langan
Eoin Colfer, Nick Hornby, Roddy Doyle, Linda Sue Park, David Almond -- top authors team up to tell the story of a man who magically connects the lives and times of young people around the world.
A video message from a dead person. A larcenous teenager. A man who can stick his left toe behind his head and in his ear. An epileptic girl seeking answers in a fairy tale. A boy who loses everything in World War II, and his brother who loses even more. And a family with a secret so big that it changes everything.
The world's best beloved authors each contribute a chapter in the life of the mysterious George "Gee" Keane, photographer, soldier, adventurer and enigma. Under different pens, a startling portrait emerges of a man, his family, and his gloriously complicated tangle of a life.
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Secret Heart
by David Almond
Joe Maloney is out of place in this world. His mother wants him to be a man, and he can’t be that yet. His only friend, Stanny Mole, wants to teach him how to kill, and Joe can’t learn that. Joe’s mind is always somewhere else: on the weird creatures he sees in the distant sky, the songs he hears in the air around him, the vibrations of life he feels everywhere. Everybody laughs at Joe Maloney.
And then a tattered circus comes to town, and a tiger comes for him. It leads him out into the night, and nothing in Joe Maloney’s world is ever the same again.
The transformative power of imagination and beauty flows through this story of a boy who walks where others wouldn’t dare to go, a boy with the heart of a tiger, an unlikely hero who knows that sometimes the most important things are the most mysterious.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Half a Creature from the Sea: A Life in Stories
by David Almond
Master storyteller David Almond presents a beautiful collection of short fiction, interwoven with pieces that illuminate the inspiration behind the stories.
May Malone is said to have a monster in her house, but what Norman finds there may just be the angel he needs. Joe Quinn’s house is noisy with poltergeists, or could it be Davie’s raging causing the disturbance? Fragile Annie learns the truth about herself in a photograph taken by a traveling man near the sea. Set in the northern English Tyneside country of the author’s childhood, these eight short stories by the incomparable David Almond evoke gritty realities and ineffable longings, experiences both ordinary and magical. In autobiographical preludes to each story, the writer shows how all things can be turned into tales, reflecting on a time of wonder, tenderness, and joy.
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The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas
by David Almond
A boy escapes home to seek his own way in the world in a whimsical outing by the award-winning David Almond, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.
Stanley Potts’s uncle Ernie has developed an over-the-top fascination with canning fish in the house, and life at 69 Fish Quay Lane has turned barmy. But there’s darkness in the madness, and when Uncle Ernie’s obsession takes an unexpectedly cruel turn, Stan has no choice but to leave. As he journeys away from the life he’s always known, he mingles with a carnival full of eccentric characters and meets the legendary Pancho Pirelli, the man who swims in a tank full of perilous piranhas. Will Stan be bold enough to dive in the churning waters himself and choose his own destiny?
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The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean
by David Almond
From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, exquisitely written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.
Billy Dean is a secret child. He has a beautiful young mother and a father who arrives at night carrying the scents of candles and incense and cigarettes. Birds fly to his window. Mice run out from his walls. His world is a carpet, a bed, pictures of the holy island, and a single locked door. His father fills his mind and his dreams with mysterious tales and memories and dreadful warnings. But then his father disappears, and Billy’s mother brings him out into the world at last. He learns the horrifying story of what was saved and what was destroyed on the day he was born, the day the bombers came to Blinkbonny. The kind butcher, Mr. McCaufrey, and the medium, Missus Malone, are waiting for him. He becomes The Angel Child, one who can heal the living, contact the dead, bring comfort to a troubled world. But there is one figure who is beyond healing, who comes looking for Billy himself — and is determined on a kind of reckoning.
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The Tale of Angelino Brown
by David Almond
In this hilarious yet touching story from the masterful David Almond, life takes a surprising turn after a bus driver finds a tiny boy angel in his pocket.
Do you believe in angels? Bert and Betty Brown do, because Bert discovered one in his shirt pocket the other day while he was driving his bus. All of a sudden they had a little boy of their very own to care for — how heavenly! Bert and Betty’s friends think Angelino is lovely. So do Nancy and Jack and Alice from school. But the Head Teacher, Mrs. Mole, is not so sure. Neither is Professor Smellie. And who is the mysterious Man in Black who claims to be a School Inspector? Or the big, lumbering Basher Malone? What could all these sneaky adults possibly have against such a perfect little angel?
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Puppet
Enjoying her career while avoiding an unhappy past, high-powered attorney Amanda Travis receives the alarming news that her mother has been charged with murdering a stranger in a Toronto hotel, a situation that forces Amanda to confront her old demons. 75,000 first printing.
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Puppet
New York Times bestselling author
Joy Fielding
is the mistress of the "taut suburban thriller"(Kirkus Reviews). Now Fielding unnerves readers with a richly layered page-turner that swings from haunting intrigue to electrifying suspense in the space of a heartbeat.
PUPPET
Living a no-strings-attached life in glamorous Palm Beach, beautiful, steely-nerved criminal attorney Amanda Travis knows exactly what she likes: spinning classes, the color black, and one-night stands. Here's what she dislikes: the color pink, nicknames...and memories. Which is why she has shut the door on two ex-husbands, her estranged mother, and her hometown of Toronto. Then comes the news that will shatter Amanda's untouchable world: her mother, who has always held a strange power over everyone she encounters, has shot and killed a complete stranger. Forced to return to Toronto, Amanda must confront her demons and unravel the truth behind her mother's violent act -- while the taunting, teasing name from her past dances in her head...Puppet...telling her that someone else is orchestrating her fate.
Includes an excerpt from Mad River Road, Joy Fielding's riveting new novel -- coming soon in hardcover from Atria Books
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Puppet
Writing in the tradition of Pinocchio, Hans Christian Anderson Award winner David Almond brings his ineffable touch to a warm and wistful story that shows anything is possible with imagination and trust.
“You’re a mystery, aren’t you, Puppet? But isn’t everything a mystery? Not just you, but every single thing that exists.”
What should a puppet master do when he’s old and alone and all his puppets are gone? Silvester decides to make one last puppet. But this one is different. When the old man speaks to him, Puppet speaks back. And then he starts to walk . . . While Silvester shows Puppet the town, the playground, and other wonders the world holds, Puppet in turn helps Silvester to make a new friend and share his puppet-making skills with the next generation. With themes of compassion and creativity, threaded with David Almond’s inimitable humor, this wonder-filled story of creation and the circle of life, illustrated with wordless black-and-white spreads by award-winning artist Lizzy Stewart, is destined to become a modern-day classic.
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$18.99
Joe Quinn's Poltergeist
by David Almond
There’s a poltergeist in Joe Quinn’s house, and Davie is determined to discover its source in this lively, hopeful graphic storybook from David Almond and Dave McKean.
Joe Quinn has been telling everyone about the poltergeist in his house, but no one believes him. No one, that is, except Davie. Davie’s felt the inexplicable presence in the Quinns’ house and seen random objects fly through the air. And there’s something else . . . a memory of Davie’s beloved sister and a feeling deep down that it might just be possible for ghosts to exist. Full of thoughts of hauntings and grief and God, Davie hovers on a precipice of uncertainty and possibility, a space that storyteller David Almond occupies comfortably and returns to again and again — here paired once more with the dynamic, dreamlike mixed-media art of Dave McKean.
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Slog's Dad
by David Almond
The ineffable nature of grieving and belief inspires a tender, gritty, and breathtaking work of graphic storytelling from the creators of The Savage.
"Slogger, man," I said. "Your dad’s dead."
"I know that, Davie. But it’s him. He’s come back again, like he said he would."
Do you believe in life after death? Slog does. He believes that the scruffy man on a bench outside the butcher shop is his dad, returned to visit him one last time. Slog’s friend Davie isn’t so sure. Can it be that some mysteries are never meant to be solved? And that belief, at times, is its own reward? The acclaimed creators of The Savage reunite for a feat of graphic storytelling that defies categorization. Eerie, poignant, and masterful, Slog’s Dad is a tale of astonishing power and complexity.
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Skellig
by David Almond
David Almond’s Printz Honor–winning novel celebrates its 10th anniversary!
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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The Color of the Sun
by David Almond
Award-winning author David Almond pens the dreamlike tale of a boy rediscovering joy and beauty within and around him, even amid sorrow.
One hot summer morning, only weeks after his father’s death, Davie steps out his front door into the familiar streets of the Tyneside town that has always been his home. But this seemingly ordinary day takes on an air of mystery and tragedy as the residents learn that a boy has been killed. Despite the threat of a murderer on the loose, Davie turns away from the gossip and sets off toward the sunlit hill above town, where the real and imaginary worlds begin to blur around him. As he winds his way up the hillside, Davie sees things that seem impossible but feel utterly right, that renew his wonder and instill him with hope. Full of the intense excitement of growing up, David Almond’s tale leaves both the reader and Davie astonished at the world and eager to explore it.
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The Dam
by David Almond
A haunting, stunningly illustrated story of loss, hope, and the power of music from multi-award winners David Almond and Levi Pinfold.
Kielder Water is a wild and beautiful place, rich in folk music and legend. Years ago, before a great dam was built to fill the valley with water, there were farms and homesteads in that valley and musicians who livened their rooms with song. After the village was abandoned and before the waters rushed in, a father and daughter returned there. The girl began to play her fiddle, bringing her tune to one empty house after another — for this was the last time that music would be heard in that place. With exquisite artwork by Levi Pinfold, David Almond’s lyrical narrative — inspired by a true tale — pays homage to his friends Mike and Kathryn Tickell and all the musicians of Northumberland, to show that music is ancient and unstoppable, and that dams and lakes cannot overwhelm it.
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A Song for Ella Grey
by David Almond
Written in lyrical prose, this novel for fans of epic romances and mythology retellings explores themes of love, loss, fate, and destiny set against the dramatic and diverse backdrop of Northern England.
David Almond, recipient of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award, a Printz Honor for Skellig, and the Printz Award for Kit’s Wilderness, has crafted an enchanting modern take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Claire and Ella and their friends are bound by ties so strong they seem unbreakable. Then the strange and handsome Orpheus strolls onto the beach, and he sings them all into an astonishing new understanding of themselves. Ella is caught the hardest, fastest, deepest—and Claire is left with the pain of looking on.
Raw, emotional, lyrical, funny, and true, A Song for Ella Grey is a tale of the joys, troubles, and desires of modern teens. It takes place in the ordinary streets of Tyneside and on the beautiful beaches of Northumberland. It’s a story of first love, a love song that draws on ancient mythical forces. A love that leads Ella, Orpheus, and Claire to the gates of Death and beyond.
Winner of The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize
A PW Best Book of 2015
"Almond's lyrical narrative will sweep readers on a journey to unearthly, mysterious realms and back."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Innovative and dreamlike . . . and told in Almond's lyrical, distinctive prose. Teen readers of a literary bent and mythology enthusiasts will love this latest work."—School Library Journal, Starred Review
"Almond brings his hypnotic lyricism to this darkly romantic tale that sings of the madness of youth, the ache of love, and the near-impossibility of grasping death."—Kirkus Reviews
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A Song for Ella Grey
by David Almond
An enchanting modern take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice from David Almond, award-winning author of Skellig, that takes readers from the joy of first love to the gates of Death and beyond.
Claire and Ella and their friends are bound by ties so strong they seem unbreakable. Then the strange and handsome Orpheus strolls onto the beach, and he sings them all into an astonishing new understanding of themselves. Ella is caught the hardest, fastest, deepest—and Claire feels the pain of looking on.
Raw, emotional, lyrical, funny, and true, A Song for Ella Grey is a tale of modern teenagers and their joys, troubles, and desires. It’s a story of first love, a love that draws on ancient mythic forces. A love that leads Ella, Orpheus, and Claire to the pits of Hell and back.
“Innovative and dreamlike.” —School Library Journal, Starred Review
“Almond’s lyrical narrative will sweep readers on a journey to unearthly, mysterious realms and back.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“David Almond’s books are strange, unsettling wild things—unfettered by the normal constraints of children’s literature, beyond classification.” —The Guardian
“Almond’s . . . prose seeps into your blood like word venom until you can’t imagine reading anything else.” —The Times (London)
“Almond brings his hypnotic lyricism to this darkly romantic tale that sings of the madness of youth, the ache of love, and the near-impossibility of grasping death.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Captures the heady rush of reckless youth. Readers will likely be transfixed.” —Booklist
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The Tightrope Walkers
by David Almond
“The interplay between the characters and their environments results in a stunningly human and humanizing story. This is by far Almond’s best work to date.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
A gentle visionary coming of age in the shadow of the shipyards of northern England, Dominic Hall is torn between extremes. He craves the freedom he feels when he balances above the earth on a makeshift tightrope with the eccentric girl artist next door, Holly Stroud—his first and abiding love. Yet he also finds himself drawn to the brutal charms of Vincent McAlinden, a complex bully who awakens something wild and reckless and killing in Dom. In a raw and beautifully crafted bildungsroman, David Almond reveals the rich inner world of a boy teetering on the edge of manhood.
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Brand New Boy
by David Almond
From the boundless imagination of David Almond comes a thought-provoking question packaged in a lively illustrated chapter book: what if a robot went to school?
When a new boy joins their class, everyone thinks he's . . . odd. George doesn't behave like other kids. He doesn't think like other kids. But he's great at football and snacking, and that's what matters to Dan and Maxie and their friends, who resolve to make George feel welcome. Over time, they learn that he's just like them in most ways, except one: George is a robot, part of an ambitious new experiment, with sinister people bent on destroying him. When George's lab pulls him out of school, can his new friends recover him--and set him free? Told in David Almond's signature rollicking narrative style, this poignant tale explores what it means to be human--and will inspire children to think and giggle in equal measure.
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Kevin and the Blackbirds
by David Almond
In a poignant and lavishly illustrated storybook, two revered creators give wing to the ancient Irish tale of a wild child with a heart of gold.
In lean times, a boy's parents send him to a monastery to be cared for. After study and prayer, the monks let young Kevin run and play in the woods and fields. But the time comes when he must set aside childish ways. Shut in his lonely cell, yearning for home and the freedom of the outdoors, Kevin reaches through the window toward the light as two blackbirds land in and feather the nest of his hands. Kevin waits, day after day, for their eggs to hatch, and it's not until the chicks spread tiny wings and fly off--three new wild things gone out into the world--that he can rest and the monks can see what they must do. In a moving first collaboration, a Hans Christian Andersen Award winner and a two-time Kate Greenaway Medal winner transform a traditional Irish tale--about the love of nature and the mercies of letting go--and make it soar.
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