Bibliographical information:

Almond, David. Skellig. 1998. New York: Dell Yearling, 2000

Brief summary:

Michael has just moved into a new neighborhood.  His house is undergoing renovation and his parents are preoccupied with the new baby, born prematurely.  He meets a creature in the broken-down garage: is it a bird?  A human?  Something else?  His friendship with Skellig (the creature), and with Mina, the girl next door, are the center of the book.

Comments:

This is a wonderful short novel.  It combines natural history with a sense of wonder -- Michael's studies of evolution weave in and out of his experiences with Skellig, Mina, and his baby sister.  Skellig's nature remains mysterious throughout, but the novel manages nonetheless to convey him with a sense of realism rare in fantasy novels.  (I might class it as magical realism rather than fantasy, in fact.)  The friendships are drawn convincingly--they don't always get along--and, while Michael certainly faces problems both at home and at school, the novel never feels like a "problem novel"--it's too unusual, and too joyful, for that.  Almond is a beautiful writer; I like this better than his other works, which are for the most part darker, but in all of them he achieves a kind of poetic compression in his prose that's a pleasure to read.

Grade/Age level:

Fifth grade and up.  I have convinced various college classes to read it (one wasn't even a children's literature class) and they enjoyed it as well.

Cautions:

Readers under ten might find Skellig a bit disturbing (he eats bugs and other living things, drinks beer, and briefly disappears). 

--Libby Gruner