61.
Author: Neil Gaiman
Title: Odd and the Frost Giants
Publication: Hardback
Pages: 117 pages
Genre: Young adult, mythology, bedtime stories
Acquisition: Purchased for Brooks
Date Completed: August 1, 2010
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

The little Norse boy named Odd does everything with a smile on his face. Odd smiles when he's scolded, and doesn't lose the smile when he hears of his father's death. Odd smiles when he cripples his right leg and foot, and he smiles when he meets a trio of talking animals claiming to be gods. Odd even smiles when he comes face to face with a Frost Giant, and the giant threatens to crush him.

Odd and the Frost Giants is a delightful mock-epic in which Gaiman writes a crippled young boy into the world of the Norse gods. With little more than his (not so) simple understanding of human/god nature Odd conquers feats that leave the more-powerful themselves crippled, and with quiet perseverance he pursues a life more welcoming than the one in which he lives.

Despite Gaiman's never-ending love affair with comma splices, his young adult novel is quite charming. I would recommend it to young readers and parents alike.