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My Name Is Mina

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Award-winning author David Almond reintroduces readers to the perceptive, sensitive Mina before the events of Skellig in this lyrical and fantastical work. My Name is Mina is not only a pleasure to read, it is an intimate and enlightening look at a character whose open mind and heart have much to teach us about life, love, and the mysteries that surround us.
Mina loves the night. While everyone else is in a deep slumber, she gazes out the window, witness to the moon's silvery light. In the stillness, she can even hear her own heart beating. This is when Mina feels that anything is possible and her imagination is set free.
A blank notebook lies on the table. It has been there for what seems like forever. Mina has proclaimed in the past that she will use it as a journal, and one night, at last, she begins to do just that. As she writes, Mina makes discoveries both trivial and profound about herself and her world, her thoughts and her dreams.
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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 15, 2011
      This intimate prequel to Skellig is built around Mina McKee, the curious and brilliant home-schooled child who eventually befriends that book’s protagonist, Michael. Mina, a budding writer, reveals her love of words in her journal; most of the book unfolds in a handwritten-looking font, with Mina’s more emphatic entries exploding onto the pages in massive display type. Her lyrical, nonlinear prose records her reflections on her past, existential musings (“The human body is 65 percent water. Two-thirds of me is constantly disappearing, and constantly being replaced. So most of me is not me at all!”), and self-directed writing exercises (“I’ll try to make my words break out of the cages of sadness, and make them sing for joy”). Almond gives readers a vivid picture of the joyfully free-form workings of Mina’s mind and her mixed emotions about being an isolated child. Her gradual emergence from the protective shell of home is beautifully portrayed as she gingerly ventures out into the world. Not as dark, but just as passionate as Almond’s previous works, this novel will inspire children to let their imaginations soar. Ages 10–up.

    • Kirkus

      September 15, 2011

      A blank notebook sings its siren song to 9-year-old wordsmith Mina McKee in this mesmerizing prequel to British author Almond's award-winning Skellig (1998).

      Mina's bold, uneven hand scrawls "My name is Mina and I love the night" in her first chapter "Moonlight, Wonder, Flies & Nonsense." Rather than chronicling her life in England with her widowed mother "to boring infinitum," she decides to let her words "murmur and scream and dance and sing." The result is the portrait of a writer as a young girl. Mina wonders and wanders, giddily examining the nature of the mind, language, sadness, swearing, schools-as-cages, daftness, owls, death, God, verbs, pee, pneumatization, spaghetti pomodoro and modern art—all through essays, footnotes, poems, stories, dreams, creative writing assignments and the occasional "extraordinary fact," such as that household dust is mostly made up of human skin. The pages can't quite contain Mina's mad joy for life's wonders, not even with occasional blasts of giant black type and rashes of exclamation points. Readers who feel like outsiders may find a kindred spirit in the homeschooled, mostly friendless Mina, who has been called everything from a witch to "Miss Bonkers," and fans of Skellig will enjoy discovering the moment when Michael moves in next door to Mina.

      A fascinating, if breathless ramble through the cosmos. (Fiction. 10-14)

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • School Library Journal

      November 1, 2011

      Gr 6-8-Mina fills her new journal with thoughts, dreams, and stories. She has left St. Bede's Middle School to be homeschooled by her mum. The reasons for this are slowly revealed. Mina writes about her home life (happy with her mum, but they both miss her late father). About her time at St. Bede's (unhappy since some of her teachers did not appreciate her extreme sense of whimsy). About a new family moving in up the street (with a young boy who turns out to be Michael from Skellig). About nature (particularly the blackbirds nesting in her tree). And about the time she attended an alternative school (that did not last long). The layout is great fun. Since this is a journal, the main font looks like handwriting. When Mina writes a poem or focuses on a particular word, the "handwriting" gets thicker and darker, as though written with a felt-tip marker. When Mina wants to distance herself from the action, she drops into the third person and writes a story in a more formal typeface. Boxes scattered throughout the text include "Extraordinary Activity" suggestions: writing a particular kind of poem, watching the stars, or flying while you dream. Almond portrays Mina as a girl with a great love of words and learning, and he plays joyfully with language. This might make for tricky going for some readers, but it is truly a wonderful book.-Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT

      Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from September 15, 2011
      Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Almond is rather brave to have written a prequel to Skellig (1998), a book that was the essence of originality. So many things could have gone wrong. But he is too shrewdand finea writer to let that happen. This is the story of Mina, the girl next door who, in Skellig, helped Michael cope with the man he found in his garage eating dead flies and growing wings. Who was Mina before Michael arrived? Form as well as language bring Mina alive. Her journal introduces us to this authoritative, imaginative, irascible child, and her entries appear in her childlike penmanship; the print is big and bold when she finds a word she loves (METEMPSYCHOSIS!), and she uses concrete poetry as she plays with language and thoughts. And what thoughts! Mina is homeschooled, because, well, because she's Mina, and she needs expanses of time to think about myths and mathematics. She dreams of her dead father and wonders, wonders, wonders about birds. It is the birds that will lead readers into Skelligthat, and glimpses of Michael and his family moving next door. This book stands very much alone, but the sense of wonder that pervades the smallest details of everyday life remains familiar.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

    • The Horn Book

      January 1, 2012
      Mina, a secondary character in Skellig, gets her own story. In a journal, the nine-year-old homeschooler relates, in nonlinear fashion, recent events in her life. Her creativity is showcased as the narrative frequently wanders into poetry and philosophy. Almond's hypnotic prose and ethereal connection between the mundane and magical triumph in this character study of a fiercely intelligent, fiercely independent girl.

      (Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

    • The Horn Book

      November 1, 2011
      Mina, a secondary character in Skellig (rev. 5/99), gets her own story here. In a journal, the nine-year-old girl relates in a meandering, nonlinear fashion both some recent events in her life -- namely the death of Ernie Myers, her elderly neighbor, and the selling of his home (which will ultimately be bought by Skellig protagonist Michael's family toward the end of the novel) -- and Mina's persecution at the hands of Mrs. Sculley, the teacher who stifles every creative impulse she has, leading to her present homeschooling situation. The journal showcases those creative impulses as the narrative often wanders into poetry and philosophy with frequent writing exercises. For example: "Write a story about yourself as if you're writing about somebody else." Or, "Write an empty page. This is quite easy. Now look closely at the emptiness. This is quite easy, too, and quite delightful." Moreover, the typography maintains a similar feeling of experimentation and exploration. It's written in a hand-lettered script for the most part with several changes in size and font. These all succeed in creating a precocious child's distinct voice, albeit one that blurs the line when it comes to credibility and consistency. And yet Almond's singular gifts -- the hypnotic quality of the prose, the ethereal connection between the mundane and the magical, and the character study of a fiercely intelligent, fiercely independent young girl -- triumph over it all. jonathan hunt

      (Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.2
  • Lexile® Measure:690
  • Interest Level:6-12(MG+)
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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