odd and the frost giants about the author page

He's been given free reign here in this beautiful book of incredibly high production values. You all know that he makes beautiful, detailed pictures that you could gaze at for hours and that match the text in mood. What can I say about the illustrations? You all know Chris Riddell. Norse mythology is my favourite mythology, so I loved all this. Gaiman cleverly writes in the famous attributes of the Norse gods and draws in many elements of the pantheon from characters to talismans to events. And when he discovers that three gods are helpless and need aid, he doesn't think twice about giving it. But he's a kindly person and so he follows the fox, helps the bear, and then gives food and shelter to fox, bear and eagle. So much sadness that he's felt driven from his village. Odd might smile a lot but he has a lot of sadness in his life. His characters are wry and dry and spry (I'm not Very Good At Writing like Gaiman, so three rhymes are all you're getting) and, even when they are engaged in acts of derring-do, never fail to make you laugh. He writes as vividly for children as he does for the grown-ups and it's irresistible, really. And it's an even better thing to stretch your vocabulary by reading Neil Gaiman, who has such a humorous and playful approach to language. There might be a little stretching with the vocabulary, but this is a good thing. So it isn't a daunting read for a middle grader. My edition has 120 pages or thereabouts and at least half of them are taken up by full page, sometimes double spread, illustrations. Originally written for World Book Day a few years back, Odd and the Frost Giants is a short and sweet little story. He will cross the rainbow bridge into Asgard and do battle with the Frost Giants. And that conversation between those three talking animals leads to an adventure and a half for Odd. Not the most promising of companions, but all three follow Odd back to the cabin. And the bear is watched by a beady-eyed eagle. The fox leads him to a bear who's been trapped while in search of honey. But before he can even get settled in his father's old cabin in the forest, Odd stumbles across a fox.

In the end, tired of the mocking and the beating and the mistrust, Odd decides to try and make it on his own. And what with his strange habit of smiling at the wrong time and his crippled leg, Odd isn't well-liked, either by his stepfather or the rest of the village. With a dead husband and a crippled son, Odd's mother had little choice but to remarry. While trying to emulate his woodcutter father - Vikings weren't full-time Vikings, you know: they all had other jobs - in the woods, Odd got too enthusiastic with an axe and a falling tree crushed his leg. His father died in a raid not so long back.

Odd and the frost giants about the author page