While many of the motifs reverberate between Skellig and My Name Is Mina, each of the two novels stands entirely on its own. She confides the events that have shaped her, the ideas she contemplates as she perches high in her tree and observes three blackbird eggs until they burst with life, and her thoughts about the closed mining tunnel that runs beneath her town and compels her like Persephone to the underground. She's home-schooled, writes constantly in her journal, and her motto is a quote from William Blake: "How can a bird that is born for joy/ sit in a cage and sing?" She takes Skellig's presence in stride, and together they help make Skellig stronger in body and spirit.ĭavid Almond dedicates this new book entirely to Mina, and it takes the form of a journal. Nine-year-old Mina is like no one that Michael has ever met.
The boy soon recognizes a kindred spirit in his neighbor Mina McKee and enlists her help. As his parents focus their attentions on his premature baby sister, whose fragile life hangs in the balance, Michael tends to Skellig. Young Michael discovers Skellig living in the garage of the rundown home he has recently moved into with his family. With his first book for young people, Skellig, he introduced the title character-perhaps human, perhaps angel, perhaps a mixture of the two. My Name Is Mina by David Almond (Delacorte Press, $15.99, 9780385740739, 304p., ages 10-up, October 11, 2011)ĭavid Almond's books reveal the magical moments waiting to be discovered in the course of everyday human experience.
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