Showing results by author "David Almond" in All Categories

Nothing is the same for Joff this summer. His dad is sick, his mum is working, there's a new kid in town. The days are long and hot, and change is in the air. With his dog, Jet, Joff explores. The Chapel of Doom is always there, ancient and crumbling, with its warning signs and the legend of the Falling Boy. But Joff isn't going to go past those signs ... is he?

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.

Nel garage della nuova casa, Michael scopre qualcosa di magico: una creatura, un po' uomo un po' uccello, che sembra avere bisogno di aiuto. Si chiama Skellig e adora il cibo cinese e la birra scura. Non sapremo mai di preciso cos'è; c'è del mistero in questa storia, ma va bene così. L'importante per Michael, e per la sua sorellina sospesa tra la vita e la morte in ospedale, è che Skellig ci sia. Come scrive Nick Hornby, Skellig è una storia "meravigliosamente semplice ma anche terribilmente complicata".

George is not like any other kids in the class, or in fact like anyone Dan or his mates have ever met before. But George turns out to be clever and funny, and everyone soon forgets his oddness...until a shocking truth comes to light. George is a robot! In fact, he is part of an ambitious new experiment in robot-kind. But the experiment is in danger, and there are people out to destroy him. Can Dan, Maxie, Billy and Louise rescue their new pal from obliteration?

Joe Maloney is out of place in this world. His mother wants him to be a man, and he can’t be that yet. His only friend, Stanny Mole, wants to teach him how to kill, and Joe can’t learn that. Joe’s mind is always somewhere else: on the weird creatures he sees in the distant sky, the songs he hears in the air around him, the vibrations of life he feels everywhere. Everybody laughs at Joe Maloney. And then a tattered circus comes to town, and a tiger comes for him. It leads him out into the night, and nothing in Joe Maloney’s world is ever the same again.

Bert and Betty Brown have got themselves a little angel. Bert found him in his top pocket when he was driving his bus. Bert and Betty's friends think he's lovely. So do Nancy and Jack and Alice from Class 5K. What a wonder! But Acting Head Teacher Mrs Mole is not so sure. Nor is Professor Smellie, or the mysterious bloke in black who claims to be a School Inspector. Then there's Basher Malone - big, lumbering Basher Malone. He REALLY doesn't like Angelino. And it looks like he's out to get him....

Winner of the Guardian Children's Book Prize 2015. Claire is Ella Grey's best friend. She's there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a Northeast landscape of gutted shipyards, of high 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.

A magnificent tale of crackpot notions and sky-high courage - from David Almond, the master of magical realism. Paul believes that the moon is not the moon but is a great hole in the sky. It's one of many strange ideas that he's never told anyone (at school he was told that he had no ideas at all) until he meets Molly, his irrepressible neighbour, who begins to convince him that his theory might just change the world....

A joyful, uplifting story of times gone by from the internationally acclaimed author of Skellig. Liam just wants to go out running with his mates - it's not long till the Junior Great North Run, and there's training to be done. But Mam needs him today to help old Harry clear out his house. Harry knows a thing or two about running. When he was a lad, he says, he ran all the way from Newcastle to South Shields. "But Harry," says Mam, "that's 13 miles!" Harry grins. "Different times," he says.

Manege frei für Stanley Potts! Waisenjunge Stanley Potts lebt bei Tante und Onkel. Zum Geburtstag darf er auf den Jahrmarkt. An einem Stand entdeckt er Goldfische in Plastikbeuteln, die ihm furchtbar leid tun. Er macht abends die Bude des Standbesitzers sauber und darf dafür die Fische mit nach Hause nehmen. Doch da die Fischkonservenfabrik des Onkels schlecht läuft, stiehlt dieser Stanleys Goldfische und kreiert daraus ein neues Produkt: die Goldfischkonserve.

"I was born in a hovel on the banks of the Tyne...” Dominic Hall grows up in the sixties on a brand-new estate, along with the other families who escaped the river. But the Tyne is still an overwhelming presence, and most of the fathers work in the shipyards. Dom is torn between his new mates: Holly Stroud, his enchanting neighbour, and Vincent McAlinden, who's something else altogether – a wild, dangerous boy with murderous instincts.

Lizzie and Dad live in a rainy town in the north of England. But why is Dad building himself a pair of wings and studying the birds to see how they fly? The Great Human Bird Competition of course!

Imagine you wrote a story and it came true. That is exactly what happens to Blue Baker who writes a story about a savage living alone in the woods near his home. After his dad’s death, Blue finds comfort in dreaming of this strange wild kid. But when the savage pays a visit to the local bully, boundaries become blurred and Blue begins to wonder where he ends and the savage begins

It features coming of age stories on the theme of closeness to home, deftly interwoven with illuminating autobiographical pieces on the inspirations behind the fiction. Stories include: "The Missing Link", "Joe Quinn's Poltergeist", "Harry Miller's Run", "Slog's Dad", "Klaus Vogel and the Bad Lads", "Mary Malone", "Half a Creature from the Sea", and, "When God Came to Kathleen's Garden".

Joe lives with his mother in Helmouth, a forgotten village crumbling on the edge of the suburbs. His days are spent trying to evade the demands of school and the taunts of the local bullies. Joe's friend, Stanny, insists that Joe must toughen up, become a survivor - and he is adamant that a weekend in the wilderness with Stanny and his Uncle Joff will do the trick. Into Joe's unhappy world comes Hackenschmidt's Circus, and with it the strangely familiar Corinna.

There he was, below the bridge, half-naked, eyes blazing. He had a pair of burning torches. He ran them back and forth across his skin. He sipped from a bottle, breathed across a torch, and fire and fumes leapt from his lips. The air was filled with the scent of paraffin. He breathed again, a great high spreading flag of fire. He glared. He roared like an animal. That summer, life had seemed perfect for Bobby Burns. But now it's autumn and the winds of change are blowing hard.

With fascination, Davie and his friend Geordie watch the arrival of a new boy, Stephen Rose, in their town. He seems to have come from nowhere, and when he arrives to live with his distant aunt, the local Crazy Mary, no one envies his new home. But perhaps he's the answer to Davie and Geordie's prayers - a secret weapon in their war against monstrous Mouldy and his gang. Intrigued, Davie and Geordie befriend Stephen.

Joe Quinn has been telling everyone about the poltergeist in his house, but no one believes him - no one, that is, except Davie. Davie’s felt the inexplicable presence in the Quinns’ house and has seen random objects fly through the air. And there’s something else...a memory of Davie’s beloved sister and a feeling deep down that it might just be possible for ghosts to exist. Full of thoughts of hauntings and grief and God, Davie hovers on a precipice of uncertainty and possibility.

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.

Louise has travelled with her father to the island of Lindisfarne every year ever since she can remember - it's the place Louise's mother loved best of all. The arrival of Hassan from war-torn Syria 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.