⋙ PDF Free The Thief of Always A Fable Clive Barker 9780060177249 Books

The Thief of Always A Fable Clive Barker 9780060177249 Books

Download As PDF : The Thief of Always A Fable Clive Barker 9780060177249 Books

The Thief of Always A Fable Clive Barker 9780060177249 Books

I just discovered this book quite recently. I only knew Clive Barker from his decidedly more adult horror work, so I was shocked, frankly, to find that he had written a children’s book. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but what I found was a fantastic story that I wish I had discovered when I was in the book’s target age range. I know it would have been a favorite of mine. It has some wonderfully spooky moments, particularly during the Halloween scenes at Holiday House, and Barker’s illustrations are delightfully creepy.

At its core, though, this book is about love and connection; what makes The Thief of Always stay with you is not its spooks or its chills, but its heart. The most effective weapons in Harvey’s battle with the evil vampiric forces in the story are his loyalty, empathy, and selflessness. When I put the book down, I felt that bittersweet wave wash over me that bibliophiles of all ages will recognize: the joy of having finished a beautiful story and the sorrow of having no more of it to read.

Kids will relate to the unbearable boredom Harvey feels at the beginning of the book – adults will too, for that matter – and they will delight in Barker’s imaginative characters. (My personal favorite is Jive, Rictus’s sibling who is a perpetual-motion mass of constant “tics, jigs and jitterings.”) The scares are well-crafted and age-appropriate, and the love and friendship at the heart of the story will resonate with readers long after they’ve finished the last chapter.


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The Thief of Always A Fable Clive Barker 9780060177249 Books Reviews

My favorite children's book of all-time. A dark adventure that became my favorite children's book--even though I read it as adult. Wonderful.
Wow, I love this book! He's an incredible writer that is able to just pull you in with his words. I've recommended it to several people, but my 11 year old son was a little too scared by the first few chapters so he put it down. Hopefully I can get him to read it when he's 13 or so.
I first read this book a decade ago (or longer), and completely forgot about it until I was scrolling through my , looking for a different Clive Barker book to recommend to my husband, the name of which I couldn't remember. So I re-bought this book (paper copy has been msising for years) and it is just as good as I remember. I tore through the entire book in two nights. A great, slighly horrific, dark fantasy from Barker, suitable for more than just the young adult crows.
This is a well-structured, easy to read book. It kept me WANTING to know what was going to happen next. I later learned that it was written for younger readers, middle school etc. What a pleasant surprise. No gratuitous swearing or sex. Just a good read. I wish other current authors would take a tip from Clive Barker. Oh, yes, I guess they just aren't as talented.
Dear lord do I love this book.

As a kid, my local supermarket had a little revolving rack of paperback books. I would spin the rack and flip through magazines while my mom shopped. I saw this book there and wanted it based on the title and cover art alone. Something drew me to it. I refused to read the plot synopsis and instead focused on the artwork and imagined what it could be about.

It took me months to get the money to buy it and when I did, reading it was like a little ritual. I settled in and read the whole thing in about two sittings. Finishing the book, I felt like it had almost synchronized with me in my life at that time.

As a child, it seemed like everyone around me was in such a hurry to move forward. Kids wanted to be adults (which made no sense to me because all adults were completely miserable). Kids didn't want to play outside anymore and began the slow, long descent into electronic isolation. That sounds overly dramatic but I literally lived through the rise of video games and the introduction of the internet and the personal computer. Being outside was an activity and then it wasn't. It was like a generation of kids just disappeared.

To me, The Thief of Always is about responsibility. The story of a kid who wants to be a kid without fear of consequences or repercussions is the story of my childhood. For whatever reason I understood clearly that my own childhood and innocence would eventually come to an end and I fought against that. It's not that I wanted to be a child forever or be an adult with Peter Pan syndrome or anything like that. I simply wanted to be able to see the world as I did as a child for the rest of my life. I wanted to be in awe of everything, always.

I don't think The Thief of Always created some breakthrough that allowed me to be a happier adult, but I re-read this book every few years to remind myself of how I saw the world and want to still see it. Thank you to Clive Barker for writing it.
I just discovered this book quite recently. I only knew Clive Barker from his decidedly more adult horror work, so I was shocked, frankly, to find that he had written a children’s book. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but what I found was a fantastic story that I wish I had discovered when I was in the book’s target age range. I know it would have been a favorite of mine. It has some wonderfully spooky moments, particularly during the Halloween scenes at Holiday House, and Barker’s illustrations are delightfully creepy.

At its core, though, this book is about love and connection; what makes The Thief of Always stay with you is not its spooks or its chills, but its heart. The most effective weapons in Harvey’s battle with the evil vampiric forces in the story are his loyalty, empathy, and selflessness. When I put the book down, I felt that bittersweet wave wash over me that bibliophiles of all ages will recognize the joy of having finished a beautiful story and the sorrow of having no more of it to read.

Kids will relate to the unbearable boredom Harvey feels at the beginning of the book – adults will too, for that matter – and they will delight in Barker’s imaginative characters. (My personal favorite is Jive, Rictus’s sibling who is a perpetual-motion mass of constant “tics, jigs and jitterings.”) The scares are well-crafted and age-appropriate, and the love and friendship at the heart of the story will resonate with readers long after they’ve finished the last chapter.