With supplemental children's literature paired with David Almond's books under the "Instructional Use: Paired Text" tab, his children's books also have higher-level complementary texts that enable Almond to be the gateway to magical realism. Although most of the works listed below would be inappropriate for children, they do grant older readers and adults access to David Almond's books.
Pair "The Yellow Room" with David Almond's The Boy who Swam with Piranhas and "The Feathers" with Christopher Myers's picture book, Wings!
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THE FEATHER ROOM
ANIS MOJGANI
Although Mojgani presents a creepier take on winged figures and birds in this poetry anthology, his philosophical and emotionally-packed verses make it a must-read on the higher end of the magical realism staircase of complexity. Mojgani introduces readers to a yellow room full of sick birds reminiscent of the impact of Uncle Ernie's cluttered fish factory on his newphew Stan Potts in Almond's The Boy who Swam with Piranhas. And, as the stand-out poem, a child who plucks out his constantly regrowing feathers highlights the ordeals of a bird-like human in a slightly morbid - but ultimately beautiful and heartbreaking - metaphor for being comfortable in one's own skin and nonacceptance of human differences. Intense and thought-provoking, Mogjani dives deeper into magical realism than Almond, but still wonders about many of the same themes. |
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AS FROM THE DARKENING GLOOM A SILVER DOVE
JOHN KEATS
In a December 1814 Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet, Romantic poet John Keats wrote an elegy for his grandmother. In its octave (first eight lines of the sonnet), Keats describes the flight of his grandmother's soul to heaven, using the symbol of a dove to do so. With the dove symbolic of peace, Keats presents a deceased soul as one at peace. Through imagery, Keats describes the angels that welcome his grandmother. Therefore, the ascension into heaven is a happy, joyous occasion. In the sestet (the poem's last six lines), Keats questions his grief. He is sad over his grandmother's death even though he believes she is at peace in heaven. Combining Almond's frequent use of bird symbolism and his overarching theme of grief, "As from the darkening gloom" illuminates a new way to view death that can be applied to many of Almond's works. Read the poem here: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-as-from-the-darkening-gloom-a-silver-dove/ |
Pair with Mina's knack for elevating ordinary animals with science in Skellig and
My Name is Mina! |
MATTHEW INMAN - THE OATMEAL
As a deep-sea dweller, the mantis shrimp is a bright, rainbow-colored crustacean whose multi-color appearance gives off no indication that it is the "underwater nightmare" that it is. In Skellig and My Name is Mina especially, David Almond uses science to elevate seemingly ordinary and mundane objects. By revealing that birds may have descended from a dinosaur and that their hollow bones developed through evolution to enable flight, Almond illuminates blackbirds in a new light. As another example, Almond pinpoints calcification and ossification as the processes through which the joints and mind hardens via Arthritis, adding to Skellig's crochety bones. Similarly, Matthew Inman reveals the the impeccable vision of the mantis shimp through its possession of sixteen color-recepetive cones - in contrast to man's three (red, blue, and green) - and the viciousness of the crustacean through its raptorial appendages and its ability to boil water via "supercavitation." Therefore, through science, Inman reveals the murderous beauty of the shrimp just as Almond digs deeper into the beauty of birds, frogs, and other seemingly ordinary animals and objects. |
Pair with David Almond's Skellig!
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A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
With Marquez even cited by David Almond in a BBC Book Club interview as one of his author inspirations (Naughtie & Almond, 2012), Marquez's short story, "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," bear significant parallels to Almond's first children's novel, Skellig. A winged old man washes up on a crab-infested shore, only to be taken in by Pelayo and Elisenda who stick him in a chicken coop (Skellig is found in a dilapidated garage) and set him up as an attraction for others to come and see. The cruel and selfish business ends with the rise of another eccentric figure, but the old man sickens and heals in alignment with the family's child (there is also a connection between Skellig and Michael's dying baby sister, Joy).
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Pair with David Almond's interview talks about the extraordinariness in "ordinariness"!
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WABI SABI
MARK REIBSTEIN & ED YOUNG
WABI SABI: A Japanese way of seeing the world that finds beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest, and mysterious. Curious about the meaning of his name, cat Wabi Sabi questions Snowball the cat, Rascal the dog, and a bird. However, all claim that the name's significance is too difficult to explain. Therefore, the bird sends Wabi Sabi to the pine trees on Mount Hiei to seek the wisdom of monkey Kosho. Traveling through the city to get to the mysterious elder, Wabi Sabi is welcomed by Kosho, who seems as if he is dancing when he makes tea in his wooden and clay pots. Therefore, Kosho shows - rather than tells - Wabi Sabi what his name means. "Treating his things as if they were gold" instead of wood and illuminating how his walk is almost like a dance, Kosho reveals the magnificence and beauty of a normal routine and modest objects.
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Pair with David Almond's My Dad's a Birdman: What Jackie's fate might have been had he not had the love and support of Lizzie!
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ANGEL - ANIMATED SHORT FILM
AAVATAR SINGH
Revolving around an old man locked apparently in a psychological hospital (inference based on IV and barred windows), this award-winning animated short film depicts man's desperate - enough so that it is a suicidal - wish to fly . . . and be free. Standing on a chair and flapping his wings to fly to a doll swinging near his window, the old man leaps in much the same fashion as Lizzie and Jackie in David Almond's My Dad's a Birdman. But going to extremes, he refuses to let gravity extinguish his dream of flight. Watch the animated short here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7QhvFEPcc |
Illuminates McNulty and the underlying effects of his war veteran status in David Almond's The Fire-Eaters! |
SLEEPING
ANDREA GIBSON
Drawing from her personal experiences with the effect of war on man through her father and uncle, Andrea Gibson delivers a heartbreaking poem contemplating whether there is such a thing as an "end" to a war. Observing how medical problems, spontaneous weeping, and blank nighttime stares at a television screen characterize her father now, Gibson asks a thought-provoking question: "How long do flowers survive in the hands of thieves?" Watch the performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAOQm__KU-o "When a war ends, what does that look like exactly?
Are the cells in my father's body supposed to stop detonating themselves?" (3:05-3:20) |
Pair with David Almond's interview talks about the extraordinariness in "ordinariness"!
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ORIGAMI
EXTRA GUM
With gum wrapper origami cranes transformed into a symbol of a father-daughter bond in Extra's heartwarming chimerical, the video's storyline captures how what many perceive as trash - an empty chewing gum wrapper - can also be seen as a keepsake treasured by a young girl into her adulthood. The commercial epitomizes how David Almond also casts a brilliant light on ordinary people and objects, revealing the potential and beauty with a little imagination. Check out the commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxZu-6jewL4 |
An ordinary young woman transforms into the extraordinary when she pulls the first feather from her back!
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GIVE ME LOVE
ED SHEERAN
Although the mythical figure of Cupid is different than the angelic and bird-like winged figures that Almond uses in his work, Sheeran's music video presents a female Cupid as an originally wingless woman. Therefore, the video taps into one of David Almond's greatest themes: revealing the extraordinary in the ordinary. Additionally, when the woman pulls the first blood-edged feather from her back, the cringe-worthy scene brings to light Mogjani's bird-child in his poem, "The Feathers," as mentioned above. Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOjdXSrtUxA |
Homemade wings reminiscent of David Almond's My Dad's a Birdman!
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THE WAY
JEREMY CAMP
With the storyline in the video being the reason for its inclusion on this list - not it's Christian song lyrics - a young man goes dumpster diving as a junk and scrap hunter-and-gatherer. Picking up a world map, wiring, and other miscellaneous objects, he constructs wings to put on a graveyard statue. Therefore, this video contemplates the power, the implications, and the meaning of re-imagining something with wings . . . just like Almond does in Skellig and My Dad's a Birdman. The music video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q6o4sbndVE |
Pair with My Name is Mina through Mina's musings on whether the souls of birds are those of the deceased!
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EVER THE SAME
ROB THOMAS
Focusing on the music video's storyline - more than the song's lyrics - Rob Thomas's "Ever the Same" casts a city birdman who attaches small notes to birds, enabling the birds to fly away and bring hope and a smile to unsuspecting strangers. With a watercolored city backdrop, the video reflects on hope, love, human-to-bird transformation (all too familiar from both My Dad's a Birdman and My Name is Mina), and what it means - and what it takes - to support one another. Watch the music video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2bjkEPL-9g |