{"id":1566,"date":"2015-02-02T02:54:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T02:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:22:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:22:38","slug":"the-iron-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/?p=1566","title":{"rendered":"The Iron Giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3865\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Iron Giant came to the top of the cliff.
\nHow far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come
\nfrom? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.
\nTaller than a house, the Iron Giant stood at the top of the
\ncliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.
\nThe wind sang through his iron fingers. His great iron head,
\nshaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom, slowly turned
\nto the right, slowly turned to the left. His iron ears turned, this
\nway, that way. He was hearing the sea. <\/em><\/p>\n

His eyes, like headlamps, glowed white, then red, then
\ninfra-red, searching the sea. Never before had the Iron Giant
\nseen the sea.
\nHe swayed in the strong wind that pressed against his back.<\/p>\n

He swayed forward, on the brink of the high cliff.
\nAnd his right foot, his enormous iron right foot, lifted – up,
\nout, into space, and the Iron Giant stepped forward, off the
\ncliff, into nothingness.<\/p>\n

CRRRAAAASSSSSSH!<\/p>\n

Down the cliff
\nthe Iron Giant
\ncame toppling,
\nhead over heels.<\/p>\n

CRASH!
\nCRASH!
\nCRASH!<\/p>\n

I’m not sure how I missed this book for so long. It came out over forty years ago, but I had never heard of it before the (quite good, very different from the book) movie came out in 1999 and never read it until this week. This is one of the first times I’ve read a book with my oldest that I was really reading along with him–a book that I had never read before. Luckily, we’re in complete agreement–it is great–especially for reading aloud.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is a good thing I waited so long; the 2010 design and illustrations by Laura Carlin are captivating. I’m not particularly found of her illustrations of people, but they are completely overshadowed (in a good way) by her thoughtful spacing of the text, her portrayal of the Iron Giant, and her introduction of the space-bat-angel-dragon.<\/p>\n

This book has been called both a tall tale and a fairy tale. Although neither label is wrong, they are a bit surprising; I would call The Iron Giant<\/em> an excellent introduction to science fiction.<\/p>\n

Author: Ted Hughes
\nIllustrator: Laura Carlin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Iron Giant came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows. Taller than a house, the Iron Giant stood at the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[154,222,565,10,767,26,566,464,564,563],"class_list":["post-1566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-books","tag-australia","tag-fairy-tale","tag-laura-carlin","tag-machines","tag-movie","tag-out-of-print","tag-science-fiction","tag-tall-tale","tag-ted-hughes","tag-the-iron-giant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1566"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2280,"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside-of-a-dog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}