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Title: The Fire-Eaters

Author: David Almond

Narrator: Daniel Gerroll

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-04-04

Publisher: Listening Library

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Kids, Ages 8-10

Publisher's Summary:

Together with his wonder-working friend, Ailsa Spink, and the fire-eating illusionist McNulty, Bobby will learn to believe in miracles that will save the people and place he loves.

Critic Reviews:

"For anyone who loves words, Almond's books are a pleasure....So imaginative and layered." (Booklist)

"Besides providing a moving portrait of a boy's growing pains, the author expresses the camaraderie within a working-class community and the love within Bobby's family. Sensitive readers will marvel at Almond's ability to show, not tell, with his highly introspective, at times enigmatic, writing style." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

Exactly what I was looking for and it arrived when I needed it <3

Beautiful and emotional

My favorite book, a beautifully woven tale that walks the fine line between fantasy and realism. There are aspects of this book that are deeply human and moving, very emotionally relatable and realistic, especially for young people. There are also aspects of this book that are fantastical, too big and too strange to be real, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. It's a moving book that really stimulates the imagination and leaves enough open to the reader to create a rich, evolving world for the characters to flourish in.

Probably the Best Book I read in 2008

This was one of the best books I read last year. There are a couple of intertwined themes here all set in the background of a working class family in the Durham coalfields.

The protagonist passes the 11 plus and is thus accepted into a grammar school, where he is nevertheless subjected -along with other children there - to daily cruelty, and ingrained prejudices, which during the novel, and through a friendship, he gains the power to overcome.

At the same time there is a theme with a character - McNulty - of mental illness, as well as the strains on the family under the threat of a life threatening illness - all set against the fear of approaching apocalypse in the cuban missile crisis.

There is so much in this book, it cannot be described - it has to be read. And Reading is not a chore, because David Almond is such a good writer. His prose is simple, but still manages to be vivid and engaging.

This is a book to read and ponder. Highly recommended

City on fire

The greatest testament there is to the power of good writing is the ability it has to tell universal stories in very particular settings. For example, when you think of the author David Almond you pretty much have to think of one place in the world. North-eastern England. Books like "Kit's Wilderness" (one of the greatest children's books ever dreamt up) would be nothing without their location. And the same goes for his particularly ambitious effort, "The Fire-Eaters". This book is set, in his own words in, "a tatty place, a coaly beach by a coaly sea". The characters talk with thick beautiful brogues. Their lives and the lives of their ancestors are rooted to the beaches on which they were born. Yet somehow this book could apply to any human being on any land on this small planet we call our own. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a testament to good writing.

Keely Bay is set apart from the rest of the world. It's the kind of place where a family can make a living simply by panning for the coal that appears naturally in the sea around it. Bobby Burns, however, is bound for higher things.