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Submitted by Jack 
(May 24, 2006)

MY REVIEW OF “SKELLIG” BY DAVID ALMOND
This inspiring and highly descriptive tale about a troubled boy, a sick baby, and a next-to-dead angel is not, at first, easily appreciated by all of its readers. It was not for a while reading the story did I finally fully understand what on earth it was talking about. All this business of a weird guy in the garage, a strange girl who liked art, some poet and a fascination to birds just didn’t add up.
After studying all this (the connection between these) I began to realize just how brilliant this story really was. Reading more of Blake’s poems it is amazing about the fact that just about every line in the book has something to do with at least one of them. Such poems as “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” reflecting the baby, along with “The Angel” which describes a sad women having a dream about an angel and “Night” referring to Skellig. Overall it was a very deep, inspiring story that will have the reader laughing and crying by the end.

Skellig by David Almond was an interesting book. I thought the book was almost perfect but could have been a little better. I thought the suspense of the thing that was in the shed and what Skellig was brilliant. It added another thing that you had to figure out to understand the book. The health of the baby and what was going to happen to her added just a little bit more to this wonderful story. When you found out what was really inside the garage there was also another thing to figure out. Michael the main character wanted to find out why the man inside the garage was so unique. It also made you want to find out what was weird about this man and I even asked a few questions like, “What are shoulder blades for?” and many different things that I wanted to find out about the book. David Slmond wrote the book very well but there still were a few down sides to it. I think some of the parts in the book where Michael goes to school were not needed they were just extra pages that you had to read. In all I thing the book deserves a four out of five.

I didn’t like Skellig as much as I thought I would, it was predictable and boring. The main character Michael was too interested in Skellig to care for much else, to me he paid more attention to Skellig than the baby, and himself. Mina was a very strange child. I don’t agree with her theory about not going to school, how can you get anywhere in life without an education. I also thought it went too deep into the ‘angel’ aspect. It didn’t really make sense why the only angel in the world has been sitting down in a garage eating insects for decades. But I liked some aspects of the book, I enjoyed the way it made you think about what you are reading. Sometimes I had to go back and read the passage again, to try and understand it. Also the way it linked to other things in life, like the town in Ireland called Skellig Michael. And the way that all aspects of Mina related to William Blake’s poems, I found that very interesting and made me appreciate the amount of effort put into the book. In that way it was a great read, but, the plot of the book was not the greatest and its biggest downfall. I would not recommend this book to all people. You can give it a go, but, the book is quite predictable. I figured out what Skellig was as soon as Michael found the lumps on his back. I give it 3 out of 5.

“I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon…”
This is the first sentence of the story ‘Skellig’ by David Almond and from just that sentence you want to know ‘who ‘it’ is?’
In this most delicate story of a boy living in fear of his sisters’ death, you can almost touch the indescribable magic that Skellig does for Michael. Skellig who is part angel, part human, part owl helps Michael through the tough times and saves Michaels life.
This story shines a light and touches your heart. A breath-taking story by David Almond, “Skellig” will hit it where it hurts.
David Almond refers to a man named William Blake; this man was a poet, he is important in this book as one of the characters who believed in Blake’s ways.
There was a connection between Michael and Skellig as there is a place in Ireland called Skellig Michael, and also if you look at Michaels friends, Coote and Leaky they are both bird names.
Almonds ways of describing Skellig as an angel was in great depth and really researched, Almond inspires everyone with his writing, and makes it seem it is an easy task to do.

Skellig, well what can I say, by far this novel was the best I've ever read. Studying the book over a period of weeks really made me understand all the elements in the book. The content of spirituality was overwhelming at times.
There is a connection between the name "Skellig" and "Michael": there is a place called Skellig Michael, a small town in Ireland. This made me think of other possible connections.
William Blake, a famous romantic's poetry was constantly being referred to, to describe different situations, birds and nature were also there, a major part of his poetry had to do with this.
The book was marvelous, representing unity, faith, belief and friendship. Skellig wasn't just a book you pick up read and are finished with, most people wouldn't take note of the elements and allusions in the book. Make sure to look up different things in the book as you come across them. Leakey and Coote (types of birds), Mina, Skellig Michael. It's fantastic! A must read!