This never-before-published collection of fourteen funny and inventive tales by acclaimed author Sir Terry Pratchett features a memorable cast of inept wizards, sensible heroes, and unusually adventuresome tortoises.
Available February 3rd from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Dragons at Crumbling Castle celebrates Pratchett’s inimitable wordplay and irreverent approach to the conventions of storytelling, and includes more than one hundred black-and-white illustrations by Mark Beech.
These accessible and mischievous tales are an ideal introduction for young readers to this beloved author, while established fans of Pratchett’s work will savor the playful presentation of the themes and ideas that inform his best-selling novels. Below, read “The Great Speck,” a story about the tiny people living on a grain of dust.
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Who did the illustrations? Quentin Blake? I’ve liked his stuff ever since his run on the Roald Dahl books.
TheMadLibrarian @1: The intro says Mark Beech, but I didn’t notice until I read your comment. They really do look like Quentin Blake’s. Much as I like their style, I would have preferred this to be illustrated in a less easily-confused-for-Dahl way. I guess there are marketing reasons for that, but it would have been nice for this to look a bit more distinct (just a bit because I think the general style suits these kinds of stories).
I have a couple of young nephews and a niece I would love to introduce to Terry Pratchet. It’s never too early to cultivate a child’s inner geek, I say.
The footnote is very reminiscent of some of the tongue-in-cheek and hilarious footnotes from the Discworld series.
I need to get two copies of this book, one for us and one for the grandkids.