Book Review

The Iron Man

Chapter 1 Review

The Iron Man is a story written by Ted Hughes. It starts off with a vast iron figure taller than a house standing at the brink of a cliff with a beach below. Ted has cleverly started the story with questions to hook the reader, Ted uses questions such as, How far had he walked? Where did he come from? How was he made?

He steps into nothingness and falls off the edge of the cliff. He lands on the golden sand as soft as a pillow, parts scattered everywhere.

The Iron man is intelligent enough to pick up his parts and put them together. But he isn’t intelligent enough to know that the sea and giant iron men don’t mix. He slowly walks into the salty water. After a long time of struggling he finally emerges from the sea.

A fisherman’s son called Hogarth is the first to spot this out of the ordinary iron figure. He runs home and tells his beloved father. His Father is the only one who believes him and doesn’t hesitate to get help.

Ted has used his words carefully and has described everything amazingly. After many re-drafts Ted has come up with a gem of a book. He has used many different techniques to hook the reader, such as repetition and personification:

• the sea chewed at the sand
• ‘hush’ whispered the sea

He has really shown and proved how good a writer he is in this book. Ted has kept a creative mind with this book. Amazing ideas.

By Cody Jones & Zoe Gray