Ten-year-old Michael faces more than a child his age should bear, with his family’s move to a house in poor repair and his prematurely born sister’s fight for life. As Michael explores the garage, he encounters a strange creature who changes his life. Is he a man, some sort of beast, or maybe even an angel? Soon Michael’s new friend and neighbor, Mina, shares in the secret.

This is an unexpectedly touching story. Michael’s intense worry for his baby sister manifests in acts of kindness toward the creature in the garage. Old soul Mina is a source of comfort for Michael and understands him in a way that only another child can. The author’s audio narration captures the innocence and awe of these children. My only reservation about this story is the occasional cursing. It would have been out of place in the home I grew up in and among my elementary school classmates. ( )

Poetic, touching, a little fantastical. I liked the bit about shoulder blades. ( )

Sono ancora molto perplessa riguardo a questo romanzo. Mi è piaciuto il suo soffermarsi sull'amicizia, sulla diversità, sulla malattia e il suo aggiungere un pizzico di magia alla quotidianità.

Non mi è piaciuto per niente, invece, l'insinuare che la discendenza dell'uomo dalla scimmia sia qualcosa di disonorevole. Perché dovrebbe esserlo? Perché discendere (ipoteticamente) dagli angeli dovrebbe essere meglio? Perché forse sono più carini?

Be', le scimmie non saranno esteriormente gradevoli come gli angeli, ma gli esseri umani sono il prodotto più alto del processo di evoluzione sulla Terra. Questo non vuol dire che siano perfetti (come lo sono gli angeli): anzi, siamo altamente imperfetti (per fortuna, aggiungerebbe Rita Levi-Montalcini, e sono d'accordo con lei). Quindi, per favore, niente scapole che sarebbero ali di angeli atrofizzate. Sto facendo la stronza e uccidendo tutta la poesia? Bah, non c'è poesia qui, solo illusione. ( )

READING LEVEL: 3.5 AR POINTS: 4.0
(Ages 9-12, grades 4-7)

This was a very strange story that I didn’t quite understand. I found it another dark story by David Almond and don't believe I'm quite a fan of his writing.

Skellig is the man Michael found sitting in the corner of their garage and covered in cobwebs, bluebottles and dust. He was part man, part owl and part angel, but what kind of angel? He had dark matted hair and wearing black clothes. His skin was white, dry and cracked. His eyes were dark but gentle. He had wings, but he appeared to be dying and was riddled with arthritis. He was cocky and talked kind of mean with total hopelessness.

Michael and his friend fed him what the creature considered the “food of the gods”...Chinese food and beer. Otherwise, he had been living off of spiders and creepy crawlies in the garage. This doesn’t actually sound like a “heavenly” being, hence the confusion about where this story was really going.

Michael and his friend, Mina, seem to both have some kind of spiritual intuitive abilities and befriend this creature. They even love this creature. They help, along with a couple of owls, to nurture him back to health. Before the creature left, to who knows where, he joins them in a circle and looking deep into their eyes, they seem to go into some kind of trance and float and Michael and Mina grow wings temporarily. Once they return to the ground, their wings are gone. I never understood the meaning of this.

This dark creature later goes to the hospital where Michael’s baby sister is about to have heart surgery. He picks her up and she smiles into her eyes and she smiles back, then suddenly has baby wings. He then puts her back into her bed. Michael’s mother witnessed the whole thing but thought she was dreaming.

So, he’s a nice angel but a dark looking angel. I still don’t know the meaning of this man-creature. Is he a fallen angel? Is the angel of death? What is he exactly that even the owls feed him to keep him alive? And what was the purpose of giving them wings for a moment?

I better stick to real stories from now on cause I obviously don't have a very good imagination...lol ( )

Un clásico imprescindible a medio camino entre lo real y lo fantástico.
En el garaje de la nueva casa, Michael descubre algo mágico: una criatura extraordinaria que parece necesitar ayuda. Su nombre es Skellig y le encanta la comida china y la cerveza negra. Nunca sabremos exactamente qué es; tampoco lo sabrá Michael. Pero lo importante, para él y para su hermana pequeña suspendida entre la vida y la muerte en el hospital, es que Skellig está allí.
Como escribe Nick Hornby, Skellig es una «historia maravillosamente simple pero terriblemente complicada (…) es un libro para niños porque es accesible y porque los protagonistas son niños, pero créanme, también es un libro para ustedes, porque es un libro para todos, y el autor lo sabe».

Skellig nos recuerda las mejores películas de Tim Burton y sabe a las mejores aventuras de Roald Dahl.