LoveReading4Kids Says
September 2023 Book of the Month
You can tell that everyone involved in the production of this book: from author to artist to designer, has relished their task! It truly is a beautifully produced book, with gold foiling and a dark autumnal palette, but the quality of the writing is equally outstanding.
Spare, yet lyrical and sardonically witty this is a personification of Death to match Terry Pratchett! On the birth of his son, a poor fisherman in his leaky cottage, decides to seek out an honest man to be his son’s godfather in the hope of a brighter future for his son than he could provide. Bitingly rejecting the offers of both God and the Devil, he next meets the terrifying figure of Death and must concede that Death is truly honest and fair and invites him to be godfather. The scene where Death attends the christening is very droll, as he tucks into the food “everyone wondered where it went but were all too polite to ask”.
Death bestows upon the fisherman a gift which enables him to earn fame and fortune for his family. But when a sick King needs his skills, he is faced with an impossible choice and discovers that Death will not take kindly to being cheated. Further, when faced with his own demise, his greed leads to a terrible conclusion. The detailed illustrations have an appropriately medieval woodcut feel and are the perfect foil to a perfect dark moral tale that will be fabulous to share around Halloween or to complement any Gothic or traditional tale study. Frankly I would love somebody to commission this pairing to remaster the complete Grimm canon! What a treat that would be.
Joy Court
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Godfather Death Synopsis
A soul-stirring reimagined Grimm tale by award-winning author Sally Nicholls and hauntingly illustrated by Julia Sarda which will spellbind and thrill readers of all ages.
When a poor fisherman chooses Death to be godfather to his son, he's sure he's made a good choice - for surely there's no man more honest than Death? At the christening, Death gives the fisherman a gift that seems at first to be the key to the family's fortune, but when greed overcomes the fisherman, he learns that nobody can truly cheat Death . . .
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781839131417 |
Publication date: |
7th September 2023 |
Author: |
Sally Nicholls |
Illustrator: |
Julia Sarda |
Publisher: |
Andersen Press Ltd |
Format: |
Hardback |
Pagination: |
48 pages |
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About Sally Nicholls
I was born in Stockton-on-Tees, just after midnight, in a thunderstorm. My father died when I was two, and my brother Ian and I were brought up my mother. I always wanted to write - when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say "I'm going to be a writer" - very definite.
I've always loved reading, and I spent most of my childhood trying to make real life as much like a book as possible. My friends and I had a secret club like the Secret Seven, and when I was nine I got most of my hair cut off because I wanted to look like George in the Famous Five. I was a real tomboy - I liked riding my bike, climbing trees and building dens in our garden. And I liked making up stories. I used to wander round my school playground at break, making up stories in my head.
I went to two secondary schools - a little Quaker school in North Yorkshire (where it was so cold that thick woolly jumpers were part of the school uniform) and a big comprehensive. I was very lonely at the little school, but I made friends at the comprehensive and got on all right. I didn't like being a teenager very much, though.
After school, I got to be an adult, which was fantastic. I went and worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Japan and then travelled around Australia and New Zealand. I jumped off bridges and tall buildings, climbed Mount Doom, wore a kimono and went to see a ballet in the Sydney Opera House. Then I came back and did a degree in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick. In my third year, realising with some panic that I was now supposed to earn a living, I enrolled in a masters in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa. It was here that I wrote Ways to Live Forever. I also won the prize for the writer with most potential, through which I got my agent. Four months later, I had a publisher.
I now live in a little house in Oxford, writing stories, and trying to believe my luck.
Photo credit Barrington Stoke website
More About Sally Nicholls