ABOUT THIS BOOK

A mysterious creature stalks the land, eating barbed wire and devouring tractors and plows. The farmers are mystified - and afraid.

And then they glimpse him in the night: the Iron Giant, taller than a house, with glowing headlight eyes and an insatiable taste for metal. Where has he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows. What they do know is that the Iron Giant must be stopped.

But the real threat hovers above, darkening the sky with its scaly wings: a space-bat as big as Australia, hungry for every living thing it sees. And suddenly, the world needs a hero - a giant hero - like never before...

First published in 1968, Ted Hughes's classic tale is a powerful tribute to peace on earth - and in all the universe.


REVIEWS

"The Iron Giant is a story so gripping that when you begin to read it aloud, everyone stops to listen, young children and old people alike. And once you know it, you never forget it. A classic is something utterly strange and original, and yet as deeply familiar and necessary as your own hands. The Iron Giant is like no other story in the world, and thirty years after its first publication, we need it as much as ever." -- Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife

"A wonderfully inventive story with the vivid language and startling images of the poet. It has music, momentum, and magic. What else can you ask for?" -- Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth

"High-spirited and entertaining... The Iron Giant is a tall-tale hero in a parable for today." -- The Horn Book

"One of the greatest of modern fairy tales." -- The Observer  (England)


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ted Hughes, late poet laureate of England, was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, in 1930. After attending Cambridge University, he went on to become a well-known poet, novelist, and essayist with dozens of books to his credit. His last work, Birthday Letters, a poetry collection chronicling his relationship with American poet Sylvia Plath, was published shortly before his death in 1998 at the age of 68.