Mankind must put a stop to the dreadful destruction by the Iron Man and set a trap for him, but he cannot be kept down. Then, when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world.

"The descriptions within this book are magical. It is a joy to read aloud and from the very first page I was able to set a creative writing activity and my class produced some excellent descriptions of this strange giant made from iron. Ted Hughes has also managed to create empathy for this speechless, seemingly emotionless metal man. At the point when the Iron Man had been trapped and buried my class were stunned in to silence... discussions followed when pupils realised that they were now feeling empathy for this creature that they had not cared about initially. An amazing story!" Year 3 Teacher

The Curriculum states that students must also be able to retell stories orally and the five-part structure of this story allows students to summarise what they have read at key points. This text can also be a perfect stimulus to explore grammatical structure, themes and conventions. A perfect text simply to encourage reading for pleasure or a great stimulus for writing activities. The story can serve as a starting point for lessons covering many skills including writing to describe, structure and sequence, narrative, characters, inference, themes etc.

"'Reckoned one of the greatest of modern fairy tales.' Observer;

'Hughes has never written more compellingly.' Robert Nye, The Times"