Muncle Trogg

by Janet Foxley, O'Kif (Illustrator)

Overview

A topsy-turvy fairy tale about a small giant on a big adventure!Let's get ready to grumble! Mount Grumble is where the giants live. But (contrary to what you might think, maybe because of their name) not every "giant" (see?) is, um...big. In fact, Muncle Trogg is so SMALL that all the other giants make fun of him for being (uh-oh) people-sized. And toss him around like a football!Fed up, Muncle Trogg climbs down Mount Grumble to take a look at the Smallings (that would be humans) he supposedly looks like. What he discovers is......a sulky green dragon and a terribly sensible girl? But when Mount Grumble is put in harm's way, it's up to little Muncle to be the bigger smallest giant, prove that size doesn't matter, and somehow save his home!"Sparkling. A cracking tale." -- The Times of London

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545404662
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
Lexile:	680L (what's this?)
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	7 - 9 Years

About the Author

Janet Foxley is the winner of the third annual LONDON TIMES/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition. Having written all her life, and now in her sixties, Janet was thrilled to see her first novel, MUNCLE TROGG, a funny story about the smallest giant in the world, published. THE FLYING DONKEY is Muncle's second adventure. Janet lives in an old farmhouse near Carlisle, England, with her husband, and has two grown children.
O'Kif is an award-winning illustrator whose work has been published in magazines, graphic novels, and children's books around the world. He lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 3–5—Muncle Trogg comes from a family of giants, but he doesn't look like his relatives. He is teased and ridiculed for being as short as a Smalling (human), and even his own brother, Gritt, enjoys holding him upside down. When Muncle and his classmates visit a Smalling Museum, he tries on Smalling clothing and is fascinated to find that it fits. Wise Man to the King, Biblios, suggests that he wear the clothes to the king's upcoming birthday party, and Muncle uses this opportunity to sneak off to the Smalling town to learn more about the humans. There, he meets and befriends a girl named Emily, and when she is kidnapped by the Giants, it is up to Muncle to rescue her. Foxley has constructed a whimsical tale full of flying dragons, wart-covered giants, and a miniature giant with a heart of gold. Expressive black-and-white drawings further allow readers to enjoy this funny romp. There are rumblings of further installments in store as Mount Grumble (actually a volcano) looks ready to explode, and an animated feature film is in the works.—Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA

School Library Journal

Winner of the 3rd Annual Chicken House Fiction Competition

"Sparkling. A cracking tale." -- The London Times

From the Publisher

Children who thought they could never identify with a giant may be surprised by this classically Dahl-esque British import. Muncle Trogg is the world's smallest giant, and he may also be the smartest. He's the only giant who isn't afraid of little human schoolgirls. Actually, he's the only giant who's ever met one. Everyone else is terrified of the "Smallings" and their magic killing sticks. But Muncle goes to visit a human town for himself, to see if he could decipher the letters in their books of magic. Curious, open-minded and no bigger than a Smalling, Muncle is hated by every other giant. Even his brother likes to dangle him upside-down for fun. This, of course, makes him the ideal hero for a children's book. Even the most rosy-spectacled readers will be astounded at how many feats of glory he pulls off in 224 pages. The many surprises are the book's greatest strength, but also its weakness. The action sometimes feels haphazard. Just how did Muncle get from the floor show at a royal banquet to the bottom of a volcano in only a few chapters? Then again, life is haphazard. Anyone who's ever felt like the world's smallest giant will find something to like in this book and will enjoy being astounded on every page. (Fantasy. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews