Ten English Authors for Young Adults

Abstract

The diverse group of authors presented here have published in multiple languages and earned international literary prizes. They enjoy a wide readership that spans not only national but also age boundaries. Their books address the breadth of possible issues and subjects, demonstrate unique styles, and cross the range of fictional genres. The first printing of David Almond's Skellig (1999) sold out in four days. He became an overnight international success, winning the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award, and the Printz Honor Book Award. Skellig's opening, I found him in the garage on Sunday afternoon/' are the words of the ten-year-old protagonist, Michael. The line focuses the reader on an ordinary place, an apparently decrepit elderly man, and Michael, the narrator who cares as tenderly for Skellig as his family cares for his critically ill newborn sister. When Michael discovers Skellig's wings hidden tightly und r his jacket, the reader enters an ethereal yet still e listic world. Michael carefully moves the owlangel-m n to an at ic and, thinking him an owl, feeds him carrion. The sist r recovers, and Skellig, having grown stronger, vanishes. Skellig's nature and purpose good or evil are never explicit; he has been an unknowable creature in the midst of fully developed and believable characters. Almond skillfully uses Michael as a responsible and thoughtful character and also as an anxious and