Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
© Date: 2009
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 117
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes,
Publisher Recommended Age: 8 and up
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: In this inventive, short, yet perfectly formed novel inspired by traditional Norse mythology, Neil Gaiman takes readers on a wild and magical trip to the land of giants and gods and back.
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In a village in ancient Norway lives a boy named Odd, and he’s had some very bad luck: His father perished in a Viking expedition; a tree fell on and shattered his leg; the endless freezing winter is making villagers dangerously grumpy.
Out in the forest Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle—three creatures with a strange story to tell.
Now Odd is forced on a stranger journey than he had imagined—a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants who have invaded it.
It’s going to take a very special kind of twelve-year-old boy to outwit the Frost Giants, restore peace to the city of gods, and end the long winter.
Someone cheerful and infuriating and clever…
Someone just like Odd…
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one was, well, odd. This one is well written and seems like it could be someone’s favorite story, it just wasn’t mine. Maybe if I was more familiar with Norse mythology, I would have enjoyed it more. Although this isn’t really the style of story that I would usually read, so maybe that is the reason for my iffiness on it.
Family Unit: Odd (10yo) lived with his mother and stepfather and four stepbrothers and three stepsisters.
Items of Interest:
- Odd was not an unusual name because it meant the tip of a blade and was lucky.
- Odd’s father died two years before while rescuing a valuable pony that fell overboard on a ship, he died from the cold and wet in his lungs.
- Odd had an accident that crippled his right leg. He tried chopping wood like his father, but had a tree fall on his foot. He managed to dig his foot out, create a crutch, and drag the heavy axe home.
- Odd’s stepfather, Fat Elfred, was nice when he wasn’t drinking, but had no time for a crippled stepson. Fat Elfred’s previous wife was struck by lightning.
- Even after his father died, his mother stopped singing as often, and his leg was shattered, Odd continued smiling. This drove the villagers mad.
- Vikings had other jobs, “sea raiding was something the men did for fun or to get things they couldn’t find in their village,” like their wives. Odd’s father had taken his mother’s knife away and thrown her over his shoulder, then carried her from Scotland back home on a longship.