The Skull

"I tell you, boy, you take. But then...it take you. More and more...you want it until you are dead but cannot die." Old Nancy's words are prophetic but Josh, popular and happy, becomes a victim of his active imagination. When he finds a cat's skull belonging to the strange pagan woman who feeds wild cats on a vacant lot, Josh assumes that it is powerful magic. He keeps it, thinking that it will help him to deal with Kevin, a sinister bully who has joined his class. The skull seems to act like a curse when Kevin steals it and gains mastery over Josh's friends. They beat him up on a lonely path beside a railway. Unless Josh can find a solution to his problem, there may be worse to come. "The Skull" is a story of self-discovery by a child of eleven on the brink of maturity. The pagan superstition in the book, combined with conflict between Josh and the psychopathic Kevin, resembles award winning author David Almond's "Clay". A similar theme of bullying appears in Anne Fine's "The Tulip Touch": pagan magic features in Theresa Breslin's "Whispers in the Graveyard" and Harriet Goodwin's "The Hex Factor".

Author: Elizabeth Knight
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 06/28/2013
Pages: 168
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.38lbs
Size: 7.99h x 5.00w x 0.36d
ISBN: 9781482090185

Review Citation(s):
Foreword 08/12/2013

About the Author
Elizabeth Knight lives with her husband in Geneva, Switzerland. She taught English and Drama at the International School of Geneva where she wrote and produced plays for the middle school children. She has published stories on line, and in publications such as the British children's magazine "Aquila" but this is her first novel for young people. Her own adult children and her eleven-year-old twin granddaughters live in New York. The pagan inspiration of the book is rooted in her Yorkshire childhood in the north of England. She spends most of her time writing, reading children's literature, and travelling.

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