book cover

Puppet

by David Almond, illustrated by Lizzy Stewart

Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 9 to 11

Published by Walker Books, 2024

  • Chapter books

About this book

Silvester is a puppet maker and puppeteer who has made hundreds of puppets and performed with them all over the world. We meet him right at the end of his life, when he has donated all his puppets to a museum exhibition.

He is old and alone and decides to make one more puppet, a very odd looking mismatched Puppet made from leftover bits and bobs from the workshop. But to his amazement, Puppet comes alive and speaks to him!

They go out into the world and no one quite notices just how odd Puppet looks, instead treating him as if he is Silvester’s grandson. They meet a truly lovely girl called Fleur and Silvester decides to teach Fleur how to make puppets and pass all his knowledge on.  

It’s a very beautiful, magical, strange, philosophical book exploring profound themes of creativity and life itself. But at the same time, it’s very readable and a beautiful story that will leave children wondering in the best possible way.

About the author

David Almond is the highly acclaimed author of Skellig, The Savage, Clay, My Name Is Mina, My Dad's a Birdman, Slog's Dad and many other novels, stories and plays. His books are translated into almost forty languages and are widely adapted for stage and screen. His numerous awards include the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Children's Book Awards and Le Prix Sorcieres, and in 2010 he gained the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international prize for children's authors. David lives with his family in Hexham, Northumberland.

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