Publishers Weekly
★ 06/29/2015
Beyond offering eight alluring epiphany stories (most previously published elsewhere), Almond (The Tightrope Walkers) provides a rare glimpse into the writer’s imagination and the process of creation. “I try to do what many writers have done before me: show that ordinary places can be extraordinary,” he notes in the introduction. The selections are prefaced with childhood memories that serve as inspiration for strange, mysterious narratives illuminated by Taylor’s haunting b&w drawings. Almond invites readers to journey through streets lined with small stores, to savor a saveloy sandwich from the local pork shop, and to ponder the possibility of fathers, dead and gone, returning to Earth. They will visit strange houses reputedly occupied by monsters or poltergeists, and move on toward the coast where a home-schooled girl is drawn to the sea. They will meet bullies, a priest who does not believe in God, boys who love soccer, and girls who decide to run a half marathon. The sights, sounds, smells, and emotions evoked in these stories will long resonate with readers and act as reminders of the joys, tragedies, and magic of childhood. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
The tale-behind-the-tale preludes are intriguing—perhaps especially to big fans and those interested in the writing process—but the stories themselves shine brightest here. Taylor's illustrations, sometimes cartoonish, sometimes more abstract and moody, cast the Almondine experience in yet another new light. This is powerful, top-notch storytelling from Almond, who seems himself to be the titular "half a creature from the sea," in that he, as ever, fluidly blends past and future, the living and the dead, the ordinary and the transcendent.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Beyond offering eight alluring epiphany stories (most previously published elsewhere), Almond (The Tightrope Walkers) provides a rare glimpse into the writer’s imagination and the process of creation. The sights, sounds, smells, and emotions evoked in these stories will long resonate with readers and act as reminders of the joys, tragedies, and magic of childhood.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The author delivers realistically magical vignettes for niche readers. A unique contribution to the rather small genre of young adult short stories.
—School Library Journal
Almond’s dialogue crackles with Briticisms and youthful English dialect. His scenes center on unsuspecting young adults making sense of mystical situations they unwittingly encounter. With each story, Almond cements his prolific, beloved place among writers of magic realism for today’s young readers.
—Booklist
While the fictional stories are equally invested in the marriage between the mystical and the earthy, Almond also brings a luminous quality to the biographical bits that will encourage readers to rethink the wonder of their own lives and to see what’s just outside their windows with new eyes.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Dark and haunting, Almond’s narratives evoke feelings of longing, suspense and horror, as well as a bit of hope and wonder. This title would be a welcome addition to middle and high school short story collections.
—School Library Connection
DECEMBER 2015 - AudioFile
Richard Halverson deftly brings to life all the wonder and oddity in these eight stories, all set in Northern England, where the author grew up. Halverson’s heavily accented voice is an excellent fit for stories that rely so much on setting. He successfully navigates between the nostalgia in Almond’s autobiographical introduction to each story and portraying the characters of varying ages and temperaments who inhabit the unique, almost magical, world of the author’s childhood. There’s a pleasing coziness in Halverson’s unhurried, leisurely pace. Listeners may imagine themselves fireside in a small country pub being regaled by tales of local English lore. A short, strange, and satisfying listening experience. E.M.C © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2015-06-10
Award-winning British novelist Almond (Kit's Wilderness, 1999; The Fire-Eaters, 2004, etc.) offers readers a glimpse into the workings of his alchemical imagination in this collection of eight otherworldly short stories set in his hometown of Felling-on-Tyne. Almond's small-town stories of savage bullies and beautiful souls are so alive and vividly spun they often feel at least partly true. Here, the author prefaces each fictional short story with some autobiographical context. "Slog's Dad," about a father who returns from heaven to visit his son, was inspired by a Raymond Carver line "I've got how much longer?" In "May Malone," May calls a Catholic priest a "bliddy liar" in church just as one of the author's friends did, and "The Missing Link" was going to be an "outsider" story but ended up a ghost story. The tale-behind-the-tale preludes are intriguing—perhaps especially to big fans and those interested in the writing process—but the stories themselves shine brightest here. Taylor's illustrations, sometimes cartoonish, sometimes more abstract and moody, cast the Almondine experience in yet another new light. This is powerful, top-notch storytelling from Almond, who seems himself to be the titular "half a creature from the sea," in that he, as ever, fluidly blends past and future, the living and the dead, the ordinary and the transcendent. (Fiction/memoir. 13 & up)
