Juvenile Fiction
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
2000
229
2001 Michael L Printz Award Winner
Written in haunting, lyrical prose, Kit’s Wilderness examines the bonds of family from one generation to the next, and explores how meaning and beauty can be revealed from the depths of darkness.
The Watson family moves to Stoneygate, an old coal-mining town, to care for Kit’s recently widowed grandfather. When Kit meets John Askew, another boy whose family has both worked and died in the mines, Askew invites Kit to join him in playing a game called Death. As Kit’s grandfather tells him stories of the mine’s past and the history of the Watson family, Askew takes Kit into the mines, where the boys look to find the childhood ghosts of their long-gone ancestors.
A Michael L. Printz Award Winner
An ALA Notable Book
A Publishers Weekly Best Book
After a week of work, reading other stuff, and life, I finally finished the 2001 Michael L Printz Award Winner, Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond.
And by “finally” — I mean it took me all week to get through it, because it started so slowly for me. I think I had a bit of a bias, having found myself underwhelmed by Skellig, his first children’s book. I felt like I had to talk myself into giving this a chance, and am glad I did, because I ended up enjoying this quite a bit.
It’s a little bit magical? mystical? with beautiful turns of phrases. I think that’s the thing that gets me with a lot of books I read now, is watching the words, and how simple they are, but how complex and amazing they turn out to be when put together by someone with skill.
This is a lovely gem of a book, and I hope there are still actual teenagers out there taking the chance to read this book.
