Skellig by David Almond

Man, bird, or angel? Who or what is Skellig?

Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. It was all going to be wonderful. But now his baby sister's ill, his parents are frantic, and Dr. Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then one day he steps into the crumbling garage.

What is this thing beneath the spiderwebs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? 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.

Told in lyrical prose, Skellig is a mystery, an adventure, and a family story, in which Michael learns about nature, poetry, and the healing power of love. - Book Jacket

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 lately it seems that something is changing. Darkness is approaching Bobby's world from all sides. His new school is a cold, cruel place where he's told he'll never amount to anything because he's "working-class." His father suffers from a mysterious illness that threatens to tear the family apart. And across the ocean, near a country called Cuba, the United States and the Soviet Union are readying their nuclear missiles, creeping closer and closer to a world-engulfing war. 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. - Book Jacket

Author: Almond, David

A Note from the Author:

I grew up in a big family in a small steep town overlooking the River Tyne, in England. It was a place of ancient coal mines, dark terraced streets, strange shops, new real estate developments, and wild heather hills. Our lives were filled with mysterious and unexpected events, and the place and its people have given me many of my stories. I always wanted to be a writer, though I told very few people until I was "grown up." I've published lots of fiction for adults, and I've won a number of prizes. I've been a mailman, a brush salesman, an editor, and a teacher. I've lived by the North Sea, in inner Manchester, and in a Suffolk farmhouse, and I wrote my first stories in a remote and dilapidated Norfolk mansion.

Writing can be difficult, but sometimes it really does feel like a kind of magic. I think that stories are living things - among the most important things in the world.