Krindlekrax

Product Information

Corky Pigeon: An elderly man who was once a sewer maintenance man, but later became the caretaker at St George's school. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Although he is very thin with frizzy and think glasses, nine-year-old Ruskin believes he is born to be a hero and sets out to prove it by delivering his beloved Lizard Street from the menace of Krindlekrax.

But when the mysterious beast, Krindlekrax, threatens Lizard Street and everyone who lives there, it is Ruskin who saves the day and proves he is the stuff that heros are made of after all. This book is also good for drama activities such as freeze framing and conscience alley as it allows for children to place themselves in the character's shoes, and understand their thoughts and feelings as if they were there in that scene. It is based on an adventure story Krindlekrax by Philip Ridley, which tells the tale of Ruskin Spear's quest to become a hero. It was first published in 1991 by Jonathan Cape and republished in 1992 by Red Fox and then again in 2001 by Puffin Books where it is still in print.He wants to be the hero of a school play, but everyone criticises him for his appearance and voice, and the role is instead given to Ruskin's window-smashing former friend Elvis Cave. This is a book of photocopiable activity sheets intended to help children become enthusiastic, motivated and reflective readers. I do think it's one of those where a good title and a healthy dose of hype has helped it into classrooms; there's a strong repetition of Lizard Street sounds and catch phrases which enhances its catchiness.

Small and thin, with knock-knees, thick glasses, a squeaky voice, no one at Ruskin's school believes he's capable of anything - all except for Ruskin's only friend Corky, the school caretaker.

Ruskin Splinter is small and thin, with knock-knees, thick glasses and a squeaky voice, and the idea of him taming a dragon makes the whole class laugh. Ruskin stops Elvis' window smashing by bursting his ball and after a long talk, they become friends again. had that surreal feel of Skellig, although obv very different, with eccentric characters and dreamlike anecdotes.

Three stars as i only read this book due to nostalgia etc and I love the story but it didn’t have the same magic about it that it had when I was 8/9 years old. Later that night, Ruskin lures the monster out of the sewers, and tames it by throwing Corky's medal in its mouth, banishing it to the sewers forever. I felt a lot of empathy towards Ruskin Splinter who suffers with a lack of love from his parents, bullying from his classmates, and has found one decent friendship in the school's janitor Corky Pigeon. The whole thing was, frankly, ludicrous and worse than that, did not address the topic of animal cruelty when there was the perfect opportunity to do so. This book was read to my class in year 3 and year 4 by the best teacher I have ever had, I always remembered the story but never remembered the name of the book until recently when I came across it at the library whilst looking for my daughter some books to lend.

I imagine they must have done a whole book topic on it, otherwise I cannot understand why it captured their imagination in such a big way.