David Almond has received numerous awards, including a Hans
Christian Andersen Award, a Carnegie Medal, and a Michael L. Printz
Award. He is the author of Skellig, Clay, and many other stories,
including Harry Miller’s Run, illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino; The
Savage, Slog’s Dad, and Mouse Bird Snake Wolf, all illustrated by
Dave McKean; and My Dad’s a Birdman and The Boy Who Climbed Into
the Moon, both illustrated by Polly Dunbar. David Almond lives in
England.
Dave McKean is an illustrator whose work has been awarded a
Nestlé Smarties Children’s Book Prize Gold Medal and been honored
as a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book of
the Year. He has illustrated many children’s books, including Neil
Gaiman’s The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, Coraline,and
the Newbery Medal–winning The Graveyard Book, as well as three
critically acclaimed collaborations with David Almond. Dave McKean
lives in England.
The art amplifies the characteristically dark, rich tones of
Almond's prose all the way to a final Dylan Thomas-style promise
that "the world and all that's in it will continue to…hold us in
its darkness and its light."... A keen collaboration moving
seamlessly between worlds inner and outer, natural and
supernatural.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
This throws Joe into an existential funk, expertly rendered in
McKean’s dark, mixed-media illustrations, where overlapping,
scribbled sketches embody confusion and conflict, jarring collages
evoke an unsettled atmosphere, and negative space echoes absence
and haunting memories. Joe navigates his inner turmoil, including
grief and religious confusion, forming earnest revelations about
life’s poltergeists (i.e., disruptions) and finding peace.
—Booklist
McKean restores a sense of compromised hope to complement Almond’s
conclusion through a mix of dark greens with a smidge of yellow
light above Davie’s head and the town itself, making this a
marvelous lesson in visual metaphor as well as a thought-provoking
horror story.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
McKean’s frenetic, ever-shifting mixed-media illustrations
dramatically convey Davie’s experiences and story’s vivid
characters, evoking a distinct sense of disquiet, while Almond’s
text propels the plot and provides deeper meaning. Gripping and
philosophical, this collaboration will prompt discussion.
—Publishers Weekly
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