David Almond
1) Puppet
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"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"--Provided...
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"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 friends, who resolve to make George feel welcome. Over time, they...
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"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...
4) The dam
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"Once the dam is built, the valley will be flooded. But before the homes there are submerged, Kathryn and her father return one last time to fill the houses with music. If you listen closely, you can still hear it--a song for all that was. Set in the wild and beautiful landscape of Northumberland, England, The Dam is a story of loss and hope and the power of folk music to transcend time."--Dust jacket flap.
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Claire witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if Ella Grey has been captured and taken from her, but the loss of her best friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world in this modern take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in Northern England.
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"Annie Lumsden has hair that drifts like seaweed, eyes that shine like rock pools, and thoughts that dart and dance like minnows. She lives with her artist mother by the sea, where she feels utterly at home, and has long felt apart from the other girls at school. Words and numbers on the page don't make sense to her, and strange maladies have been springing up that the doctors can't explain. Annie's mother says that all things can be turned into tales,...
9) Skellig
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Young readers will by enchanted by this magical tale of friendship and family: Michael was looking forward to his new house and neighborhood, until his infant sister became very ill. Now his parents are constantly frantic, the scary doctor is always coming around, and Michael feels helpless. When he goes out into the old rickety garage, he comes across a mysterious being living beneath spider webs and eating flies for dinner. This creature calls...
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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
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"Joe is starstruck, determined to find his way up, up, up to the magical lights in the night sky. "In your dreams!" his pals say. But when Joe and his dad put their heads and hearts together, there's no stopping them. Together they climb ladders, construct towers, and launch rockets in a tireless quest to reach the unreachable. Airy and playful, Gill Smith's dynamic illustrations perfectly complement David Almond's ebullient tale of sky-high courage--and...
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Nanty Solo is new in town and claims she can turn children into birds. Terrified parents forbid the idea, but the children want to fly--they want it very much--and they do. One by one, they approach Nanty Solo. One by one, they are transformed until the sky over town teems with rooks and goldfinches, parakeets and sparrows. The adults take one look and cry, "Get out of that sky this very minute!" But the sight of their offspring--set free to soar,...
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"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 balmy. 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...
14) War is over
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It's 1918, and war is everywhere. John's father is fighting in the trenches far away in France, while his mother works in a menacing 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 dreamlike meeting with a German boy named Jan. John catches a glimpse of a better world, in which children like...
19) Clay
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This mesmerizing fable tells how 14-year-old Davie Hagan's life is changed forever by a mysterious outsider, Stephen Rose. Beguiled by Stephen's gifts, Davie falls headlong under his spell.