Skellig

'Skellig' by David Almond.

6/10

I first heard of Skellig as the film - which I haven't seen, by the way - and for that I'm quite ashamed considering this is meant to be a children's modern 'classic', published in 1998. Though thinking back about that time I was well and truly devoted to another children's modern.

The story is of a boy, Michael, who moves into a run down house with his parents and his very ill baby sister. The story is his, as told by him through the eyes of a boy.

In the new house's garage he finds a irritable, dry, half-dead man, who we later find out is called Skellig. Every clue says that the man is in fact an angel, but this angel is far from the glowing halos and ethereal beings you might envision. Why Skellig is there in the first place is never answered, but the book is written in such a way that some questions are just not important. To a boy (whose age is never revealed, but it's safe to say he's between 9 and 11, though sometimes he seems closer to 7 and sometimes closer to 12...) the important questions are never "How did you get here?" but "Who are you?" and "What are you doing here?" and, most poignantly, "Where are you going?"

The book is filled with little bits of wisdom, even though the story itself is very simple - boy finds an angel, boy shows the angel to new friend, both children save the angel and in the end the angel saves them... sort of. The appeal of 'Skellig' isn't in the story, but in all the lessons, conversations and learning curves that are realised along the way.

I think there's a certain religious aspect to it, too. Or, perhaps anti-religion. No... that's not it... it's more like anti-anti-religion. It's as though the author tries at once to tell you that gods don't exist, and that they do but they're not what you think. He says that while Michael's baby sister is ill and has medical attention, what saves her is an angel, but the angel only exists because of human aspects, such as love, hope and faith.

I could go on for ages about this little book, pulling it apart and analysing every last detail inside and out and the result would still be the same. It's one that will stick in your mind for all the right reasons, no matter how old you are when you read it. It was written for kids, from the point of view of a kid, but with very adult messages throughout.