Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2013
80 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The gods have created a world that is safe and calm and rather wonderful. They have built mountains, forests, and seas and filled the world with animals, people, and unnamed beasts. Now their days are fat with long naps in the clouds, mutual admiration, and tea and cake. But their world has gaps in it filled with emptiness, gaps that intrigue Harry, Sue, and little Ben until they begin to see what might fill them.
One by one the children conjure, from twigs and leaves and stones, a mousy thing, a chirpy thing, and a twisty legless thing. But as the children's ideas grow bolder, the power of their visions proves greater and more dangerous than they, or the gods, could ever have imagined. Is it possible to unmake what's been made?
"Starred Review. This contemporary fable about man's power to create and to destroy may be controversial in settings where questioning biblical creation stories is taboo, but where questioning is encouraged, it will challenge and provoke. Ages 7+." - Publishers Weekly
"Almond's mythic and folkloric elements, wrapped in his own fertile imagination, combine with McKean's expressionistic illustrations to produce a whole that reveals the beauty and terror encountered in the created world and in the human spirit." - School Library Journal
"Wild and alive, this visually extravagant fable of the marvel, power and active nature of the creative process howls at the moon." - Kirkus
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David Almond, in his own words:
I was born in Newcastle and I grew up in a big Catholic family in
Felling-on-Tyne. I had four sisters and a brother and lots of relatives in the
streets nearby. My dad had been in Burma during the war. He and my mum married
in the late 40s. Dad became an office manager in an engineering factory. Mum was
a shorthand typist until she had the children. We moved several times when I was
a child, but always within Felling.
Felling had been a coal mining town, but by the time I remember anything the
pits were all closed. The river at the foot of the town was lined with
warehouses and shipyards. At the summit was a wild area we called the Heather
Hills. I loved playing football in the fields above the town, camping out with
my friends, ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to David Almond, Dave McKean (illustrator)'s Website
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