The 1000-Year-Old Boy by Ross Welford

The 1000-Year-Old Boy by Ross Welford is a touching story about two boys, Alfie and Aidan. However, Alfie isn’t really a boy, in fact, he’s one-thousand-eleven years old. When Alfie was just eleven during 1014 A.D., he used one of his fathers, livperler or, life-pearls against his mother’s warning. She cautioned that he must wait to grow up before he used the magic-like ball that would give him the ability to live forever in the same body. The pearl wouldn’t however, make him immortal, he would still die if he was shot, stabbed, or killed in war, like his father. At first, it seemed fun, but as time went on, what was once a superpower, now seems like a curse.

Alve Einarsson, or Alfie Monk, and his mother(who has the same curse) have constantly needed to move from place to place to avoid being known as Neverdead, someone who used a livperler to stop themselves from dying. Because of this, and also because of his condition where he never grows up, Alfie was never able to have very many friends. Roxy and Aidan, two other children living close to where Alfie does, went to explore his house under the notion that his mother was a witch. However, during their exploration, Roxy fell into Alfie’s yard and cut her head on a sharp rock. Alfie jumped at the chance to have a new friend and nursed Roxy back to health with his mother’s help.

Sadly, that night, Alfie’s house burned down with his mother inside of it. Shocked and heartbroken, poor Alfie hid in Roxy’s shed, crying in the corner. The two children calmed him down and told him everything was going to be alright. A few days later, Alfie told Aidan of his plan to make everything right and make sure that he was going to be able to grow up and eventually die. However, someone else seems to be following the three children during their plan to find the last livperler and get it back.

I absolutely loved the heartfelt novel because of the wonderfully unique plot of a fairytale-like story in a magical world with sadness, action, happiness, and most importantly, a dash of humor.