The Savage

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

"He had no famly and he had no pals and he didn't know where he come from and he culdn't talk." The savage is a product of Blue Baker's imagination -- or so he thinks. His father has died, and Blue has turned to writing a peculiar story about a savage kid, but the line between fantasy and reality blurs -- as it so often does in Almond's work -- when one night the savage visits the bully who has been hounding Blue unmercifully. This illustrated novella, a graphic novel within a novel, is grounded in the idiom and setting of northern England and recapitulates many familiar Almond motifs: the sensitive boy, the harassing bully, the family tested by illness or death, and the wild and mysterious creature. McKean's illustrations -- ink and watercolor rendered in various shades of black, blue, and green -- add an appropriately eerie touch. A welcome addition to Almond's body of work, The Savage should pique the interest of newcomers and satisfy devoted fans awaiting his next full-bodied novel. Similar in many respects to A Monster Calls…full of raw emotion and how one boy handles the death of his father.