Joe Maloney is out of place in this world. His mother wants him to be a man, and he can't be that. His school wants him to stop truanting, and he can't do that. His one friend wants to teach him how to kill, and he can't learn that. Joe's mind is always somewhere else, on the weird creatures he sees around him, the songs and whispers in the
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Amazon Review
Secret Heart is the fourth novel from David Almond: an author who always hits the mark. This time he surpasses himself with a tale of lost souls and lonely hearts, set against the backdrop of a visiting circus and the dream of a beautiful tiger.
Young Joe Maloney's dreams are invaded by the footsteps of a tiger, so real, so near, yet too far away to touch. When he meets the visiting circus people, he makes a connection that will change his life forever. Almond's writing is, as ever, almost perfect: few authors have the ability to capture mystery and beauty so perfectly, bringing the strangeness of reality and the normality of the obscure so vividly to life.
His award-winning Skellig, the beautiful Heaven Eyes and the rich and unforgettable Kit's Wilderness have left an indelible mark on children's literature, and Secret Heart is set to join them in the ranks of the truly great, appealing to children, parents and teachers in equal numbers. (Age 10 and over)--Susan Harrison
Review
A life-changing story of hope, love and encouragement for a boy who's been all but written off. -- The Sunday Times
An exhilarating, though not always easy read for anyone who, like Joe has tigers and larks in their hearts. -- THE GUARDIAN
This gripping book will enrich your soul and fire your imagination. -- DAILY TELEGRAPH
This is a powerful addition to his highly distinctive works -- TES
An exhilarating, though not always easy read for anyone who, like Joe has tigers and larks in their hearts. -- THE GUARDIAN
This gripping book will enrich your soul and fire your imagination. -- DAILY TELEGRAPH
This is a powerful addition to his highly distinctive works -- TES
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First Sentence
All that night, Joe Maloney sweated, twisted and turned. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
All that night, Joe Maloney sweated, twisted and turned. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Tigerrtje
Format:Paperback
I really loved "Skellig" and liked "Kit's wilderniss" even better - they are two great books. But "Secret heart" was a major disappointment for me.
It felt like Almond took his themes too far this time. From the beginning, it was obvious how it was going to end, it was all too clear. The book never questions its mysteries. Furthermore, the good characters were too good and the bad ones simply too bad. A weak boy with a speech impediment, bullied by the others, is not what he seems? That was a major cliché and a huge turn-off for me.
I hope David Almond takes another direction in "The Fire-eaters." Searching for other themes, maybe even a new style, might do him some good.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Tigerrtje
Format:Paperback
Although I am a big Almond-fan, his latest just did not work for me. The characters were too clearly good vs. bad and they lacked depth. I thought Joe was a bit too 'simple', the people in the village too rough, which made the story thin and predictable.
The magic was too obvious as well, it sounded like new age talk to me, it just didn't go anywhere, remained too vague, had no body. Give me the subtle and exciting "Kit's Wilderniss" instead, still Almond's best to me.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I wouldn't say that David Almond had 'lost it' with Heaven Eyes -- any new book from him is worth reading for its magic, transparency and deep feeling... -- but Secret Heart is definitely up there with Skellig and Kit's Wilderness as a children's classic (even when you're a child aged nearly 40!).
So utterly believable; with the 'magic' totally integrated into a heartfelt and tangible 'realism'. Unputdownable, as always; providing a great insight into the heart and minds of very special places and characters.
Thank you, again, David Almond....
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Joy Manne
Format:Paperback
I read somewhere that we are no longer human beings; we are consumers.
This is not a book for consumers. It's for human beings who have not lost touch with their unique magic, a shamanovel. A magic boy sees more than others; a girl guides in his initiation into self-knowledge. A wise woman, Nanty Solo initiates him into who he really is. A wise man, Hackenschmidt teaches him that manly tenderness lies beneath a fierce exterior. The boy is recognized among the magic people as one of their own, while he is reviled by the "consumers" - children who have lost touch with their unique magic.
Wonderful evocative language takes us with the boy on his journey and initiates us with him.
Everyone can read this book on their own level.
Bravo David Almond
This is not a book for consumers. It's for human beings who have not lost touch with their unique magic, a shamanovel. A magic boy sees more than others; a girl guides in his initiation into self-knowledge. A wise woman, Nanty Solo initiates him into who he really is. A wise man, Hackenschmidt teaches him that manly tenderness lies beneath a fierce exterior. The boy is recognized among the magic people as one of their own, while he is reviled by the "consumers" - children who have lost touch with their unique magic.
Wonderful evocative language takes us with the boy on his journey and initiates us with him.
Everyone can read this book on their own level.
Bravo David Almond
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The tiger visits him every night. The sound of its footsteps, the smell of its dung.
Joe is different to other people. He feels more, thinks more, and dreams more. His mother knows he is different, but she doesn't tell him to be quiet when he is singing to her the strange songs he hears in the air, she dousn't pretend that the things he hears or sees aren't real, even though, she doesn't really understand. Joe's mother is the one who understands him most. He doesn't know his father, and never has. Joss, a tough, rough man, fancies his mother. Joss tries to get into the family, by saying Joe needs to toughen up. He needs a man to look after him. Joe doesn't want what happened to his friend Stanny, to happen to him.
The circus moves to Joe's town, and Joe is entranced. He thinks the circus is beautiful, and longs to step inside the sky blue scaffolding. When he does go in, he meets a girl, but this girl isn't any stranger. Her and Joe are close. They feel as though they were twins. The circus has no tigers now, they were got rid of when they started to hurt the circus owners.
Joe meets Nanty, who tells him that the tiger has chosen him to set it free into the forest. It is his task. How will he do it?........
This book is one of the best books David Almond has written. It has an imaginative, original story line, which is both gripping, and enjoyable.
I think that it is suitable for ages 11+. Boys and girls. Also adults will find this a good book if they are looking for an easy read, and a good story.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Fedos Panayi
Format:Paperback
I read this book in preparation for reading it with my 12 year old. Previously she had very much enjoyed Skellig, which I feel is more approachable, since the fantasy element has a clearly defined place. This book I feel gets a bit carried away by the fantasy mode so that we get a bit lost... I get the feeling that when this starts to happen we have a kind of "anything goes" formula being used by the author, so that we lose our anchoring in the real world. The characters are archetypes that don't really ring true. Still, it is possible that my daughter will like it, we will have to see...
By lesley
Format:Paperback
Perhaps there's some deep meaning that I'm not seeing but there didn't seem to be much of a story here. It is good to say that there's something special and wonderful that could be in all of us if we let it. I think that was the message. It is like an Indie genre. It was easy to read and pretty strange. For example, I found it strange when Carina who is one of the enlightened ones, kept wanting people dead and was unforgiving.
By Jo Bennie
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Young Joe Maloney does not fit. He stutters, is constantly bullied by the children of the bleak suburbanan town of Helmouth and cannot seem to stop truanting. Alone he wanders the wastelands around the nearby motorway, he sees things others do not and though his mother, raising him alone, his carney father gone before he was born, she worries for him.
Then one night he dreams of a tiger, Almond's description weaving its rank smell and the feel of its fur and awesome power thorough our minds. He wakes to find Hackenschmidt's Circus in town on its final tour, but there are no tigers at this circus. There are no animals of any kind, only a threadbare sky blue tent, gaudy paintings washed out and acts well past their prime. Joe is drawn to trapeze artist Corinna, a parentless girl his own age, and she takes his hand and guides him through his part in a lyrical wake for the dying circus.
An achingly beautiful story about difference, and how sometimes when you are different it is not you who are 'wrong', but the world itself. Joe rises beyond the stunted grey life of the aptly named Helmouth and enters into a world of colour and imagination. As always with Almond, we cannot be sure of what we witness, it is ineffable, but of the highest value.
Then one night he dreams of a tiger, Almond's description weaving its rank smell and the feel of its fur and awesome power thorough our minds. He wakes to find Hackenschmidt's Circus in town on its final tour, but there are no tigers at this circus. There are no animals of any kind, only a threadbare sky blue tent, gaudy paintings washed out and acts well past their prime. Joe is drawn to trapeze artist Corinna, a parentless girl his own age, and she takes his hand and guides him through his part in a lyrical wake for the dying circus.
An achingly beautiful story about difference, and how sometimes when you are different it is not you who are 'wrong', but the world itself. Joe rises beyond the stunted grey life of the aptly named Helmouth and enters into a world of colour and imagination. As always with Almond, we cannot be sure of what we witness, it is ineffable, but of the highest value.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Profound but Very Readable
Once again David Almond writes a story that is at once accessible and profound. Once again his prose blurs the distinctions between the real and the imagined, and we enter into a... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2009 by Sir Furboy
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent story. David Almond at his best!!
After reading Counting Stars I could hardly bear to say I did not like it. However after reading Secret Heart I can now see why he wrote it. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
realy great
this book is realy great-it has a strong story to it,its got lots of twists and its a story that is based on real life. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2001
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