The Cockatrice Boys - Hardcover

Joan Aiken

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0575062665 ISBN 13: 9780575062665

Publisher: Victor Gollancz, 1996

Synopsis

What does a cockatrice enjoy most for dinner? Anyone it can find. So the alarmed inhabitants of England discover when a plague of monsters-known as cockatrices-invade their country and begin gobbling them up. They must be stopped! A plucky band of survivors dubbed the Cockatrice Corps- including youngsters Dakin and Sauna-decide to fight back. But how? A rollicking adventure filled with breathtaking twists and turns, "The Cockatrice Boys "is Joan Aiken at her comic best.

About this title

Review:

The idea for this book is so sensational it could have come from The Sunday Sport: hideous demonic monsters invade England, laying it to waste and devouring most of the inhabitants. Embargoed by the rest of the world, the English barricade themselves underground until, after five years on the defensive, a counter attack is planned. The Cockatrice Belle, an armoured and heavily-armed train, is built to attack and, if possible, find the source of the plague. The train sets out for Manchester with her crack Cockatrice Corps crew, and by chance picks up Sauna, a young girl who embodies both cause and cure. Readers will be gripped by Joan Aiken's group of evocatively Dickensian and strange characters--Dakin, Clipspeak, Bellswinger and Tom Flint--as they follow their desperate bid to save England in this quirky, inventive fantasy.

Review:

"Readers will be reminded of "Alice in Wonderland". . .and the movie trilogy Star Wars."--"School Library Journal"

About this edition

• Publisher: Victor Gollancz
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0575062665
• ISBN 13: 9780575062665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 190