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Skellig
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 10:58:46 -0500
I couldn't stop thinking about Skellig after I read it. More than a year later, I find that it is still vivid to me, both visually--it is one of those books that seems as if I have "seen" it as I read it--and on an emotional plane. It was a story I deeply felt as it moved along.
There is a generosity of spirit that each of the three main characters--Michael and Mina and Skellig--possesses and shares in his or her own way. That generosity of spirit is shown as something inherent but also in need of nurturing in order for it to flourish. In Skellig's case, physical nurturing, in Michael's and even Mina's case, emotional nurturing.
I was so uplifted by the book--by the hope that I felt it generates--that I was surprised to find some people had almost the opposite reaction, finding it sad and even depressing. When we discussed it last summer here at the CCBC, I gained insight into how the darker elements of the narrative--the baby who is deathly ill, Skellig's own pain--is the overpowering impression left for some readers. For me, those were elements that were countered, and ultimately overcome (literally) by elements of hope and light, but clearly this was not the case for everyone.
I'm wondering what experience others have had in reading the book themselves--did it leave you feeling hopeful or saddened? I'm also wondering if anyone has talked about the book with young readers? I love Melanie Duncan's description in her review of Skellig that she shared here that Skellig "is whatever he is needed to be." Who or what is Skellig to them?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 06 Jul 2000 10:58:46 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 10:58:46 -0500
I couldn't stop thinking about Skellig after I read it. More than a year later, I find that it is still vivid to me, both visually--it is one of those books that seems as if I have "seen" it as I read it--and on an emotional plane. It was a story I deeply felt as it moved along.
There is a generosity of spirit that each of the three main characters--Michael and Mina and Skellig--possesses and shares in his or her own way. That generosity of spirit is shown as something inherent but also in need of nurturing in order for it to flourish. In Skellig's case, physical nurturing, in Michael's and even Mina's case, emotional nurturing.
I was so uplifted by the book--by the hope that I felt it generates--that I was surprised to find some people had almost the opposite reaction, finding it sad and even depressing. When we discussed it last summer here at the CCBC, I gained insight into how the darker elements of the narrative--the baby who is deathly ill, Skellig's own pain--is the overpowering impression left for some readers. For me, those were elements that were countered, and ultimately overcome (literally) by elements of hope and light, but clearly this was not the case for everyone.
I'm wondering what experience others have had in reading the book themselves--did it leave you feeling hopeful or saddened? I'm also wondering if anyone has talked about the book with young readers? I love Melanie Duncan's description in her review of Skellig that she shared here that Skellig "is whatever he is needed to be." Who or what is Skellig to them?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 06 Jul 2000 10:58:46 AM CDT
