From the bestselling, award-winning author of SKELLIG comes a vivid and moving story, beautifully illustrated, written to commemorate the hundred-year anniversary of the end of the First World War.
“I am just a child,” says John. “How can I be at war?”
It’s 1918, and war is everywhere. John’s dad is fighting in the trenches far away in France. His mum works in the munitions factory just along the road. His teacher says that John is fighting, too, that he is at war with enemy children in Germany.
One day, in the wild woods outside town, John has an impossible moment: a meeting with a German boy named Jan. John catches a glimpse of a better world, in which children like Jan and himself can come together, and scatter the seeds of peace.
Gorgeously illustrated by David Litchfield, this is a book to treasure.
Erin, January and Mouse live in a children’s home, Whitegates. They often dream of escape, and frequently journey into the outside world. Running away is something they know all about. But this time January builds a raft, and the three of them head precariously down river. Towards the Black Middens. This time they might never come back. When they stumble across a disused factory and its strange inhabitants – Grampa and Heaven Eyes – they wonder if they’ll even have the choice. Heaven Eyes is the girl who should have drowned at sea. The mysterious girl desperately searching for her family, hoping that these three might be the family she has lost. She has a secret history only Grampa knows. And does he trust these three invaders enough to tell them? Erin feels a sisterly responsibility for Heaven Eyes, Mouse longs to belong anywhere and anyhow, but January thinks Grampa’s a murderer. Whatever happens, all three have a part to play. . .
A stunning novel from the author of the modern children’s classic Skellig – winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.
This is a moving, funny and inspirational novel from the bestselling author of Skellig. *Shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Book Awards.*
“The day is long, the world is wide, you’re young and free.”
One hot summer morning, Davie steps boldly out of his front door. The world he enters is very familiar – the little Tyneside town that has always been his home – but as the day passes, it becomes ever more mysterious.
A boy has been killed, and Davie thinks he might know who is responsible. He turns away from the gossip and excitement and sets off roaming towards the sunlit hills above the town.
As the day goes on, the real and the imaginary start to merge, and Davie knows that neither he nor his world will ever be the same again.
This an outstanding novel full of warmth and light, from a multi-award-winning author. David Almond says: ‘I guess it embodies my constant astonishment at being alive in this beautiful, weird, extraordinary world.’
From the bestselling, award-winning David Almond comes a book of hope and joy: under a boundless starry sky, the unforgettable Sylvia Carr finds out what it means to be brave. For readers of Michael Morpurgo and Katherine Rundell, from the author of the beloved Skellig.
She felt like a ghost. She woke in the night. What was that music?
Sylvia has never been so far away. Her mother has brought her to this village, this place of silence and dark, endless forest, and she yearns for the city, the bright lights, her friends, even a phone signal.
Late one night she hears the music, a weird jagged spiralling sound. It is played by Gabriel, a troubled, beautiful boy.
Gabriel uses the strangest of flutes, a hollow bone. Play it well enough, he says, and you cross the borders between the living and the dead.
Sylvia knows she’ll follow him into the depths of the forest. But will they ever find their way out again?
Winner of the Guardian children’s book prize 2015.
I’m the one who’s left behind. I’m the one to tell the tale. I knew them both… knew how they lived and how they died.
Claire is Ella Grey’s best friend. She’s there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; ofhigh arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story – as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.
There’s an empty notebook lying on the table in the moonlight. It’s been there for an age. I keep on saying that I’ll write a journal. So I’ll start right here, right now. I open the book and write the very first words: My name is Mina and I love the night. Then what shall I write? I can’t just write that this happened then this happened then this happened to boring infinitum. I’ll let my journal grow just like the mind does, just like a tree or a beast does, just like life does. Why should a book tell a tale in a dull straight line?
And so Mina writes and writes in her notebook, and here is her journal, Mina’s life in Mina’s own words: her stories and dreams, experiences and thoughts, her scribblings and nonsense, poems and songs. Her vivid account of her vivid life.
In this stunning book, David Almond revisits Mina before she has met Michael, before she has met Skellig.
Shortlisted for the 2012 Carnegie Medal.
‘A joyous celebration of what it means to be young and alive and enquiring… beautifully written and imaginatively presented.’ TES
‘Sensational.’ Daily Telegraph Books of the Year
A stunning new story from the bestselling, prize-winning David Almond, unfolding the magic of the everyday. Mina, from the unforgettable Skellig and My Name is Mina, journeys to Japan and discovers the wonders of the world around her.
Kyoto, Japan. Mina is on a bus. Everything is strange and beautiful.
Mina watches as a woman folds a piece of paper into an origami boat, then floats it over to her.
As Mina discovers the magic of origami, her eyes are opened to the wonders of the real city around her.
Unfold the magic of the everyday, on a journey with one of the world’s best-loved authors – with stunning illustrations from Kirsti Beautyman in black and orange throughout.
The bestselling story about love, loss and hope that launched David Almond as one of the best children’s writers of today. Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award, this unforgettable book now has captivating illustrations by Tom de Freston to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary.
When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister’s illness, Michael’s world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain.
One Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the ramshackle garage of his new home and finds something magical. A strange creature – human? beast? bird? angel? – a being who needs Michael’s help if he is to survive. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health.
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.
Love, death, hope … the island will change their lives forever. From the bestselling David Almond, author of SKELLIG, and now with fantastic illustrations by the award-winning David Litchfield.
Louise has travelled with her father to the island every year since she can remember – it’s the place her mother loved best of all.
The arrival of Hassan changes everything. Louise is restless and yearning for independence; meanwhile, the fiercely free and self-reliant Hassan seems to know the island from long ago as if it were his home from birth.
Hassan is an acrobat, maybe a sorcerer, possibly a source of great danger. The wild boys who call the island their home want to cast him out.
The forces of love, death and hope move Louise and Hassan together. The island will change their lives forever.
David Almond is the author of many beloved and prize-winning books for children and teenagers. His best known work, Skellig, won the Whitbread Children’s Award and the Carnegie Medal and has been widely adapted for stage and screen. He has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world’s most prestigious prize for children’s authors. In 2021, David was awarded an OBE for services to literature.