Mouse Bird Snake Wolf

David Almond is the winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the most prestigious award in international children’s literature. He is known worldwide as the multi- award-winning author of Skellig, Clay, and many other novels, stories, and plays, including two previous titles illustrated by Dave McKean. David Almond lives in England.

Dave McKean is a world-renowned artist, designer, and film director who has illustrated several books for children, including Coraline, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and The Wolves in the Walls, all by Neil Gaiman, and two prior titles by David Almond. Dave McKean lives in England.

Almond and McKean, the collaborators behind THE SAVAGE and SLOG'S DAD, take on themes worthy of Greek tragedy: human ambition, the emergence of evil, and the power of the individual to resist it.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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. 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. You could say that this is Almond and McKean’s most beautiful effort yet, but just know that beautiful has its own dark and wondrous meaning in their hands.
—Booklist (starred review)