The Iron Giant | Ted Hughes | Wonderful Book & Movie

The Iron Giant | Ted Hughes | A children's book

books:

The Iron Giant

	The Iron Giant Ted Hughes Yearling, 1999 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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 appetite for metal. Where has he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows. What they do know is the Iron Giant must be stopped.

Only a young boy named Hogarth is brave enough to lead the Iron Giant to a safe home. And only Hogarth knows where to turn when the earth 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.

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Wonderful Book & Movie

Although this isn't the place to have a complete discussion of the Hughes/Plath relationship I suggest that the previous reviewer do more reading. Hughes did not "drive two wives to suicide" although it is popular to vilify him. Plath had previous suicide attempts well before ever meeting Hughes although this is generally ignored by those who wish to turn her into a feminist icon and blame him for her death. I could go on, but this is not the place for it.

A children's book

I bought this book because I loved the movie.

This was also a really cool book, but it's very different from the movie. There are actually only a few concepts taken from this book that made it into the movie--a) that the iron giant can fix himself, b) that the boy's name is Hogarth, and c) that the iron giant eats metal. Nothing else is the same, really.

Brad Bird is a genius to make the movie he did out of this book.

I didn't realize this, but the book was written in 1968. It's very much in children's book format, with small, chunk-sized stories, that would be very fun to read out loud.

Overall I really enjoyed this book.

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Childhood classic.

Bought the Iron Giant video, paperback, and the original version (The Iron Man) so my college age son could enjoy them again and keep them for his future family.

Very Different from the Movie

I first saw "The Iron Giant" as a movie and it's a fantastic movie. When I saw a copy of the book for sale I quickly snatched it up, I thought I would read it with my daughter.

The thing that first surprised me about this book is that it is beautifully written. It's obvious from its prose that Ted Hughes is also a poet. The slightly sophisticated language might be too much for those under 7, but I found it refreshingly charming.

The second surprise was that this book had very little to do with the movie. There's an Iron Giant in the movie and book as well as a young boy...and that's about it. The theme's are the same (in that this world can be a world of peace instead of a world of violence and fear) but both approach this lesson from different directions.

In the book, the Iron Giant, tricked by the boy, falls into a trap set for him by fearful farmers. The farmers quickly dispose of the giant, but the giant returns and it's up to the boy again to figure out how best to deal with him. In the end the boy and giant become friends but there is a bigger threat on the horizon, a space dragon the size of Australia has come to earth and only the Iron Giant can save the planet.

There's a lot of deep information here for such a short children's book. The Iron Giant (like in the movie) represents misguided fear. The space dragon can mean a number of things, but I align it with this planets habit of aggression... an aggression that threatens to consume us all. This book was written 30 years ago, but it seems timelier now than it did in the 1970's.

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THE IRON MAN, NOT THE IRON GIANT

Don't let the illustration on the cover (or the title) fool you. This is Hughes' The Iron Man story that was the basis for the animated film The Iron Giant. Don't buy this book for bedtime reading expecting a novelization of the movie. The stories are similar but Hogarth plays (in my opinion) a minor role here and the Giant battles a monster from the constellation of Orion instead of elements of our government. The b&w illustrations are a nice touch but I don't think they'd fly in a large story time environment. The book also lacks the elements of friendship, self sacrifice, and non violence that were touched on in the film. Having said all that, enjoy the book for what it is - a story in 5 nights.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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