Mina obsesses over her new discoveries, such as the word ‘metempsychosis’, or Persephone of ancient Greek mythology. Mina’s writing is boisterous, as she highlights words that she learns that, to be frank, even I hadn’t heard before. She begins to further pursue her passion for writing, sharing only with her journal and mother the contents of her mind. Struggling in school, Mina’s mother takes her out of school and homeschools her. Just as we spend their first few years on this Earth answering their questions and inspiring curiosity, children can in turn inspire us to flip the switch on our imaginations that we unknowingly turned off at some point between adolescence and adulthood. Highlighting Mina’s relationship with her deceased father and her quiet and reserved mother, Almond shows us that children rejuvenate our long-lost ability to think outside the box. The irrational impulses, limitless imagination, justified sensitivity, and a never-ceasing curiosity are all traits that Mina exhibits and we, too, might have once possessed as children. Almond released My Name Is Mina, the prequel to Skellig, twelve years later to remind us of all the things that fade into the background in the transition from childhood to adulthood. We first met Mina in 1998 in Skellig, David Almond’s Carnegie Medal children’s book. This review was originally written in 2015.

My name is mina book