David Almond

Skellig

David Almond

• 1998 Carnegie winner
• 1998 Whitbread-Children's winner
• 2000 Mythopoeic-Children finalist
• 2000 Printz honor
• 1999 LATimes–Young Adult finalist
• 2002 YRCA-Intermediate nominee
• Score: 42.48

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 ...

The Fire-Eaters

David Almond

• 2004 Horn Book-fiction winner
• 2003 Whitbread-Children's winner
• 2003 Carnegie shortlist
• 2003 Guardian Award shortlist
• Score: 32.54

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...

Kit's Wilderness

David Almond

• 2001 Printz winner
• 2000 Guardian Award shortlist
• 1999 Carnegie shortlist
• 2003 YRCA-Intermediate nominee
• Score: 26.51

The Watson family moves to Stoneygate, an old coal-mining town, to care for Kit’s recently widowed grandfather. When Kit meets John Askew, another boy whose family had both worked and died in the mines, Askew invites Kit to join him to play a game called Death. As Kit’s grandfather provides stories of the mine’s past and the history of the Watson family, the boys search the mines to find the childhood ghosts of their long-gone ancestors.

Clay

David Almond

• 2007 Carnegie shortlist
• 2006 Costa-Children's shortlist
• 2006 Guardian Award longlist
• Score: 16.57

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.

Heaven Eyes

David Almond

• 2000 Carnegie shortlist
• 2000 Whitbread-Children's shortlist
• Score: 12.5

Erin Law and her friends are Damaged Children. At least that is the label given to them by Maureen, the woman who runs the orphanage that they live in. Damaged, Beyond Repair because they have no parents to take care of them. But Erin knows that if they care for each other they can put up with the psychologists, the social workers, the therapists - at least most of the time. Sometimes there is nothing left but to run away, to run for freedom. And that is what Erin and two friends do, run away one night downriver on a raft.