Kit's Wilderness

Kit’s Wilderness is a 1999 children’s book from British author David Almond. It tells a magic-tinged story of a young boy who moves to a former coal-mining town, his ailing grandfather, and the strange games the children of the town play. Partly a ghost story, partly a coming-of-age tale, the novel deals with themes of family, meaning, memory, and death. Almond, who grew up in the coal-mining town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, has written a number of award-winning novels for children and young adults. He is a winner of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen award for his first novel, Skellig.

The novel begins when 13-year-old Christopher “Kit” Watson and his family move to a former coal-mining town called Stoneygate to care for Kit’s grandfather. His grandmother has recently died, and his grandfather is beginning to show signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Though unwell, Kit’s grandfather does still remember much of his life, and tells Kit stories about his career in the coal mines and his hardscrabble existence as a young man growing up in Stoneygate.

As Kit starts school, he begins to find friends among the misfits and outcasts. He makes friends with a girl named Allie who calls herself “bad” but treats Kit with kindness. Her “bad girl” persona is a role she plays; she dreams of becoming an actress someday. Kit also meets a strange boy named John, who goes by the nickname “Askew.” Kit attracts Askew’s attention because he has been writing down his grandfather’s stories and memories and sharing them at school. He is a budding writer, and he draws admiration from teachers and students.



Kit and Askew initially bond: they both come from families with a long history in the town’s mining industry, now gone. Both boys have ancestors who were killed in an 1821 Stoneygate pit disaster, which killed over 100 young boys. Now the mine’s many tunnels are abandoned, perhaps haunted by the many boys who died within.

Askew invites Kit to play “a game called Death.” The game, a ritualistic re-enactment of the children who died in the pit, involves setting a knife on the ground and spinning it. When the knife stops, it points at Kit, and Askew tells him he has been chosen to “die.” This means he must find his way into one of the abandoned mine tunnels that still lurk beneath the town’s surface.

When Kit enters the den, he seems to see ghosts, the faces of the boys killed long ago. He is frightened, afraid that he is losing his mind. His behavior changes after his trip to the mines; he is temperamental and lashes out at Allie. A teacher notices how different Kit has become, and talks to him, uncovering the ritual of the game. When school officials find out, Askew is expelled, forcing him to stay home with an abusive father. The “game called Death” is put to an end, and the old den is filled in.



But the game has lingering effects. Kit continues to see visions of the dead and questions his sanity. He also sees characters from the stories he is writing. Yet the visions seem to be true ones, proof not of insanity but of a special kind of insight. Kit’s grandfather, his mind deteriorating, also begins to have visions of the dead and departed. His condition is worsening, and he is losing what remains of himself and his memory.

Askew is angry at Kit for revealing the game. He runs away from home and seeks revenge on Kit, using another boy named Bobby Carr to lure Kit into the pit. There, the two boys confront each other. Askew is furious, but Kit finds a way to deflect the other boy’s anger: by telling him a story, by using the power of his words.

Kit tells Askew he has a story for him. He tells Askew the story of a prehistoric boy named Lak, whose life and circumstances seem to parallel Askew’s. As Kit tells the story, he has another vision, one of the characters from the story. Askew sees them too: the boys share this strange affinity for the spirit world. By the end of the story, one of the “ghosts” Kit’s words have conjured takes “a part” of Askew, and the boy is no longer angry.



Allie finds the two boys in the mine with help from Bobby and takes them back to town. Askew is able to go back to school, where he finds an outlet in art classes. His father stops drinking, and his home life becomes tolerable. Kit’s grandfather dies, but the boy is at peace with the death, knowing that his grandfather will always be with him through the stories he told of his life.

Kit’s Wilderness won the Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association and was a silver runner-up for the Smarties Prize in the UK. Almond has said that aspects of the book are autobiographical, particularly the details of the town. Almond went on to write many more critically-acclaimed books, including The Fire-Eaters and A Song for Ella Grey.