However, the text became out of print due to Ridley leaving Faber and Faber in 2005 as a result of their refusal to publish his controversial stage play for adults Mercury Fur. It is based on an adventure story Krindlekrax by Philip Ridley, which tells the tale of Ruskin Spear's quest to become a hero. had that surreal feel of Skellig, although obv very different, with eccentric characters and dreamlike anecdotes. Smarties Prize-winning children's fantasy about the mysterious dragon Krindlekrax who lives beneath the cracked pavements on Lizard Street.

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. There's a large and vicious alligator who lives in the sewers,, several caricatured adults (including Ruskin's rather sad parents and his teacher) and a bully who breaks windows and sleep walks.

Krindlekrax was one of the books featured and appeared alongside such classics as Roald Dahl's Matilda and J. Cave: Elvis' parents who own the Dragon and the Golden Penny pub and seem to do nothing about their son's window smashing.

The book is intended for Key Stage 2 English readers and aims to help teachers organise tasks which introduce children to a range of specific key reading skills as outlined in the reading PoS. 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.

My wife is a teacher (ages 9/10) and she often talks about the importance of readable books, citing this as a good example. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The characters are all unlikeable, kind of bizarre and hollow, with the exception of the main two, which is a bit misanthropic in my opinion and not what I want to fill my kids head with. Elvis Cave: The big and loud school bully who wears an American footballer's outfit and breaks windows (even when he sleepwalks), he was once Ruskin's friend but grew jealous of him when he became friends with Corky.

And when Krindlekrax threatens Lizard Street, Ruskin has the chance to prove he really is the stuff heroes are made of! The kids in my class were very excited when this book was inside the box that arrived from the local library. This book highlights important issues such as bullying, death and grieving, and creates an exciting page-turning desire from chapter to chapter.Found it particularly useful with year 3 as they could somewhat relate experiences in the book with their own experiences, and were then able to feel more empathetic towards the characters, particularly Ruskin. Ruskin Splinter is not your typical hero for the school play, and his class, including his teacher, knew this. He was once Ruskin's friend but became Elvis' follower after he grew so tall and always said "Yes Sir!