The Savage

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David Almond on top form - Rated
This story seems to me the best thing David Almond has written since The Fire-Eaters. It tells (in a brief compass) of a boy who overcomes bitter resentment towards a bully (who mocks him over his father's death) by writing a story, which then comes partially to life in the real world, about a feral child who lives like a wild animal and with whom he can half identify himself. Almond fans will recognize a number of themes that Almond has made peculiarly his own -- family affection, bereavement, the need to come to terms with the darker side of human character, and the strange borderline between fantasy and reality. The numerous illustrations (which are an integral part of the work and not just an accompaniment) have an appropriate roughness to them, though writer and artist should have come to an agreement over the savage boy's dress -- skins in the text, but jeans in the illustrations.