Wild and alive, this visually extravagant fable of the marvel, power and active nature of the creative process howls at the moon. His major awards include The Carnegie Medal, two Whitbreads, The Michael L Printz Award, Le Prix Sorcieres, The Nonino International Prize, The James Kruss Award and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. In my opinion Mouse Bird Snake Wolf is a precious gift to the world – a quick read but one you will never forget. It's a short story but the characters are fully formed through the combination of concise writing and gorgeous scenery, and the whole story prompts comparisons of other mythologies- making it an ideal supplementary read for pupils learning about Greeks, Romans or Vikings.

It was awarded a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Silver Award) and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal (2000) and for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Dave McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. Harry, Sue and Little Ben are our main protagonists, who spend their days walking, climbing and exploring this world that is quite like our own – but a little bit unfinished. His innovative, boundary-breaking work is loved by readers of all ages, and receives widespread critical acclaim. David Almond is the author of Skellig, Bone Music, Island, The Savage, The Tightrope Walkers, A Song for Ella Grey, The Dam, The Colour of the Sun, and many other novels, stories, picture books, opera librettos, songs and plays.The contorted beauty of McKean's figures and Almond's intense, twisty narrative will keep readers right on the edge of comfort before the clouds clear. A powerful and thought-provoking text, illustrated in graphic novel-style, which will enable children to explore the beauty and dangers of nature as well as the importance of boundaries and self-restraint. I'd recommend it to any junior school pupil, and I'd certainly recommend it to colleagues and friends who are teachers. Along the way, they'll be dazzled by the lush lyricism of the tale and the wild emotional swings from page to page, as well as McKean's creative use of mixed materials and compositional space. No spoilers, but it built tension wonderfully, and I enjoyed what happened to two of the children, as I think children's fiction can sometimes shy away from fully embracing the consequences of a characters actions.

The Gods are happy with their creation, they’ve built the sea, sky, mountains and many other magnificent things to fill the earth…but now they are tired and require sleep. It is an exciting read with an usual tale about a world only partially made by gods, who being satisfied with themselves decide that they do not need to fill the gaps left in the world. The gods have created a world – they’ve built mountains, a sea and a sky – and now their days are filled with long naps in the clouds (and tea and cake). This is something that is dealt with delicately by Almond and McKean but it’s something that has stuck with me – the struggle between good (Gods) and Evil (Wolf) – which in essence this evil (Wolf) was created by humans, it wasn’t intended to be, it was never part of the master plan – the Gods never intended this evil to roam the world…but now it has been let loose, can anyone put it back? But as the children's ideas grow bolder, the power of their visions proves greater and more dangerous than they, or the gods, could ever have imagined.A Guardian reviewer described it "a folktale or creation myth" and wrote, "There is a captivating simplicity about the unshowy language. That’s until Harry, Sue and Little Ben begin to fill the gaps of the world: with a mousy thing, a chirpy thing and a twisty legless thing. David Almond was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1951 and grew up in the small mining town of Felling. Despite being incredibly positive with my class of 30 children only 21 children are enjoying some of it, 8 don't get it and haven't enjoyed it at all. McKean’s illustrations appear in books by authors such as Neil Gaiman, David Almond, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King to name a few.

Even I struggled to understand the story that was intentionally 'written on many levels' as described by CLPE. There are gaps that haven’t been filled yet – pieces of sky missing, pieces of the earth with nothing in them – just a void hole.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This was followed by The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas (2012) a children’s book illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, Mouse Bird Snake Wolf (2013) with illustrator Dave McKean, A Song for Ella Grey (2014) and The Tightrope Walker (2014), a novel for young adults, and The Colour of the Sun (2018). Aber die Geschichte, die mit Langeweile und Ausprobieren beginnt und dann eben - trotz des Eingreifens der Götter - nicht wirklich ein happy-end hat, sondern wo die Früchte des eigenen Tuns, in diesem Fall Erfindens bzw.