Odd and the Frost Giants

Odd and the Frost Giants written and read by Neil Gaiman, 117 pages; 1 hour 30 minutes on audio

Odd is a 12-year-old boy who has a bit of a bad lot in life. His dad died last year while on a Viking sailing expedition (though it was from drowning while trying to save a pony rather than from battle wounds), and not long afterward, Odd's mother moved in with a rude man and his herd of rude children. To add injury to insult, Odd then crushed his foot and leg, making him even more useless in the eyes of his new stepfather.

So when Odd leaves home in the middle of winter, nobody seems to mind, though it opens Odd up for an adventure that quite lives up to his name--after meeting Norse gods Odin, Thor, and Loki (who are trapped in the form of animals), Odd vows to help them reclaim Asgard from the Frost Giants.

It's a delightful tale, and Gaiman's narration on the audiobook is wonderful. (Seriously, can we get Neil to read every book?) My one regret about the audiobook is that I missed out on what I've heard are some lovely illustrations in the traditional book version (though, of course, then I would have missed out on Gaiman's reading). I suppose I'll just have to thumb through the book version as well...