Skip to main content

Odd and the Frost Giants

By

by Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins, 2009. 117 pgs. Juvenile Fiction.
Odd has a lucky name (meaning the tip of a blade) but not a lucky life. His father died at sea and when Odd tries to take over his woodcutter business, he drops a tree on his own leg, shattering the bones and crippling himself. Odd's stepfather has no use for the boy so Odd leaves home to live in his father's cabin in the woods. One morning Odd hears a noise outside the house and discovers a fox who leads him into the woods to where a bear is trapped in the hollow of an old tree. Odd rescues the bear and the fox, the bear, and an eagle follow him home where they reveal themselves to be Norse gods, transformed and turned out of Asgard by the Frost Giants. How Odd drives the Frost Giant out of Asgard with scarcely more ammunition than his dazzling smile is the burden of this delightful, mythical tale. An accessible book for reluctant readers, Odd and the Frost Giants is distinguished as well by Neil Gaiman's memorable, visual prose.

Labels:

Comments

Nycole said…
I enjoyed Odd and the Frost Giants. A quick read with enough Norse mythology to make it fantasy and a very solid human character, Odd, to make it appealing and real. I like fOdd. I hope Gaiman gives him some adventures.
NSL
May 13, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more