Skellig


 * || [[image:http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/bookimages/show.php?029.jpg width="150" height="240" align="left" caption="Skellig book cover" link="http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=29"]]
 * //Skellig// is the sensitive story of a boy trying to cope with his premature baby sister's struggle to survive. As a young adolescent, Michael does not readily express his emotions to his parents or to his high school friends, who expect him to carry on playing football with them as usual.**


 * The family's move to a run down house with a derelict garage and overgrown rubbish-strewn yard add to their stress. Michael badly wants to confide in someone about the mysterious being he finds suffering in the dusty and dangerously unstable garage. His parents are upset and preoccupied with the baby and Michael doubts both the reality of his find and the understanding of his friends.**


 * Michael's identification with his sister's struggle for life is expressed by his perception that he can feel in his own heart, a second feeble beat that is his sister's heartbeat. Unable to do anything towards his sister's recovery, Michael devotes himself to caring secretly for the being, who at first appeared to be a very cantankerous old man refusing to see a doctor.**


 * Michael's new friend Mina, who has unusual attitudes through being educated at home, shows him how to appreciate nature and the struggle for life where one animal will kill another in order to survive. Together the children help the old man to an empty house and share his gradual transformation into Skellig, the beautiful winged manlike creature who is fed by a pair of owls.**


 * The story develops on two planes, exploring the nature of life, death and the possibility of supernatural influences against the practical difficulties of day to day living and relating to other people.**


 * //Skellig// is very easy to read and quite moving.**
 * Judy Nicholls (WA)**


 * Awards: Winner, Whitbread Award 1998 [UK], Children's Category; Winner, Carnegie Medal [UK]** ||