Kit's Wilderness (19 page)

OTHER BOOKS BY DAVID ALMOND

Man, bird, or angel?
Who or what is Skellig?
Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. It was all going to be wonderful. But now his baby sister’s ill, his parents are frantic, and Dr. Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then one day he steps into the crumbling garage.
What is the thing beneath the spiderwebs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend Mina. Together they carry the creature into the light, and Michael’s world changes forever.

Told in lyrical prose,
Skellig
is a mystery, an adventure, and a family story in which Michael learns about nature, poetry, and the healing power of love.

We come into the world out of the dark. We haven’t got a clue where we’ve come from. We’ve got no idea where we’re going. But while we’re here in the world, if we’re brave enough, we flap our wings and fly.
Running away from Whitegates is easy. After all, it’s not a prison. Erin and her running-away friend, January, do it all the time. This time is different, though. This time they’re going down the river. They’re looking for freedom, sweet freedom, however dangerous the journey. In the slithery mud of the Black Middens, they find the strange girl called Heaven Eyes. It is Heaven Eyes who will help these damaged children find the tiny corner of Paradise they’ve lost.

Fusing reality with imagination and dreams, David Almond takes us on an unforgettable ride though darkness into the light, out of loneliness and sorrow into the warm embrace of family (wherever we may find it).

This evocative, haunting look back at David Almond’s childhood has all the magic and insight of his novels.
David Almond’s extraordinary novels have established him as an author of unique insight and skill. These stories encapsulate his endless sense of mystery and wonderment, as they weave a tangible tapestry of growing up in a large, loving family. Here are the kernels of his novels—joy and fear, darkness and light, the healing power of love and imagination in overcoming the wounds of ignorance and prejudice.

These stories merge memory and dream, the real and the imagined, in a collection of exquisite tenderness.

Thanks to the Hawthornden Trust for the award of a Hawthornden Fellowship in 1997, and to the Arts Council for a Writer’s Award in 1998.

Published by Delacorte Press
an imprint of
Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

Copyright © 1999 by David Almond

First published in Great Britain by Hodder Children’s Books 1999

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Almond, David.

   Kit’s wilderness / David Almond.-lst American ed.

     p.   cm.

   Summary:Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the decaying coal mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds both the old man and the town haunted by ghosts of the past.

   [1. Coal mines and mining Fiction. 2. Ghosts Fiction. 3. Grandfathers Fiction. 4.Old age Fiction. 5. England Fiction.] I.Title.

PZ7.A448Ki 2000

[Fic]—dc2l

99-34332

CIP  

eISBN: 978-0-385-72989-5

v3.0