Almond, David

Kit's Wilderness

This is an excellent book, though I would caution against giving it to young children as it deals a lot with death and ghosts.

Kit and his family have moved back to Stoneygate to care for Kit's elderly grandfather, who begins telling Kit stories from his years as a coal miner. However, as he tells Kit his stories he begins to forget them and by the end of the book Kit is telling the stories back to his grandfather to help him remember who he is. Anyone who has dealt with elderly and forgetful family members will be touched and moved by Kit's compassion and love toward his grandfather.

Kit also is making new friends of course, and one of them is named John Askew. Askew and Kit are both from the old mining families, and Askew teaches Kit how to see the ghosts of the old "pit children" - children who died in the mines and whose bodies were never recovered and buried. At the same time, Kit begins writing a story about a boy who lived during the Ice Age and realizes that the story is also about Askew's struggle to reconcile his relationships with his family. The stories all become entwined with one another in the most unusual, unexpected book I have ever read.