- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford; New edition edition (3 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192753746
- ISBN-13: 978-0192753748
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
286,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #31 in Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators > C > Cross, Gillian
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
a rattling good yarn (TLS )
It's exciting stuff that will have you on the edge of your seat until the very end (Primary Times )
It's exciting stuff that will have you on the edge of your seat until the very end (Primary Times )
Book Description
An exciting reissue of this best-selling title
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Lloyd and Harvey get more than they bargined when they get a new foster sister called Dinah. On her first day at school Dinah notices there is something is wrong, all the children are well behaved and keen to learn, the prefects behave like teachers, only worse and the whole school is run by the mysterious Headmaster. Lloyd and Harvey along with their friends Ian, Mandy and Ingrid are treated as outcasts and trouble makers as they are the only five who behave as children normally do. Dinah soon discovers that the Headmaster uses hynostism to control the children in the school and tries to alert Lloyd and the others to this but unfortunatly she too is under the Headmaster's influence and is at first unable to tell them. When she does at last she is introduced to SPLAT (Society for the Protection of our Lives Against Them)made up of the five 'normals' and together they plot to foil the Headmaster's evil plans and get rid of him for good.
Great book with a terrific story. Probably one of the earliest examples of a children's book that portrayed the child characters in a realistic way rather than the goody goodies portrayed by the likes of Enid Blyton.
Great book with a terrific story. Probably one of the earliest examples of a children's book that portrayed the child characters in a realistic way rather than the goody goodies portrayed by the likes of Enid Blyton.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First published in 1982, this book reads a bit like a cross between Enid Blyton's secret seven and the My parents are aliens TV series, except that here the very odd characters are at school rather than at home. Dinah has just moved to a new foster home where the incumbent boys (particularly older brother Lloyd) are very suspicious of her. Perhaps with good reason, as from the very first day at her new school, Dinah can see that something is horribly wrong. All the schoolchildren are just too perfectly behaved, and her free-thinking step-brothers are being excluded and treated as trouble-makers. And before long, the Headmaster asks to see Dinah....
My son (10) is really enjoying me reading this book to him at bedtime (at 160 pages it is taking a while). We started off with the Puffin edition and then bought this edition when the library recalled it. We were disappointed that, unlike the Puffin version, this book has no illustrations (and the front cover is a bit bland compared to the traditional cover image of the Demon Headmasters face - but then in a way the old cover gave away a lot of the plot). But the story reads well enough without line drawings, and we have now bought all the other five books in this series : The Demon Headmaster and the Prime Minister's Brain, The revenge of the Demon Headmaster, The Demon Headmaster takes over, The Demon Headmaster strikes again, and Facing the Demon Headmaster. They must be read in order to make sense of what is going on.
Some of the language in Demon Headmaster seems dated, mainly Lloyd's food related exclamations, which make it read very much like a 1950s Enid Blyton book (no bad thing - and my sons often laughs out loud at his expressions). But it's a well crafted story that kept my son's attention throughout, and, although tense in places, it's surprisingly non-scary considering the plot-line. Unlike his favourite AstroSaurs and Captain Underpants books, this book is probably more girl friendly as well. Just a shame the excellent TV series isn't available on DVD at the moment to compliment this very good book (aimed at 7-12s I would say). It just loses a star as we missed the illustrations of the Puffin version.
My son (10) is really enjoying me reading this book to him at bedtime (at 160 pages it is taking a while). We started off with the Puffin edition and then bought this edition when the library recalled it. We were disappointed that, unlike the Puffin version, this book has no illustrations (and the front cover is a bit bland compared to the traditional cover image of the Demon Headmasters face - but then in a way the old cover gave away a lot of the plot). But the story reads well enough without line drawings, and we have now bought all the other five books in this series : The Demon Headmaster and the Prime Minister's Brain, The revenge of the Demon Headmaster, The Demon Headmaster takes over, The Demon Headmaster strikes again, and Facing the Demon Headmaster. They must be read in order to make sense of what is going on.
Some of the language in Demon Headmaster seems dated, mainly Lloyd's food related exclamations, which make it read very much like a 1950s Enid Blyton book (no bad thing - and my sons often laughs out loud at his expressions). But it's a well crafted story that kept my son's attention throughout, and, although tense in places, it's surprisingly non-scary considering the plot-line. Unlike his favourite AstroSaurs and Captain Underpants books, this book is probably more girl friendly as well. Just a shame the excellent TV series isn't available on DVD at the moment to compliment this very good book (aimed at 7-12s I would say). It just loses a star as we missed the illustrations of the Puffin version.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I remembered enjoying this book when I was young, and recently revisited it. It is a good book with an idea I think will appeal to lots of children -- a creepy headmaster who controls people by hypnotism, and a group of children who oppose him.
Although the first book is good and the second Prime Minister one is not bad, I wouldn't bother with the rest of the books in the series -- they get increasingly stagnant and do nothing to advance the characters beyond the end of the first book. Whilst the first book is a great new idea and has tension in the way of rivalry between the protagonist Dinah and the boys she joins the family of, the other ones all are very formulaic in that weird things happen and the children discover that the Headmaster is the cause and defeat him. The headmaster never develops as a character, which was fine for the first book, but I would expect a far deeper character to come out over a six-book series, rather than a cardboard villain.
There were also three other kids who helped Dinah and the two brothers in the first book, with whom they had a gang called splat. The gang being called splat was fair enough in the first book, but became cloying and unnecessary in the later ones, and the inclusion of the other children also seemed very unnecessary in the other volumes, since they never developed away from being one-dimensional characters. Ian is a boy whose only defining characteristic seems to be that he does and says things 'lazily', Ingrid I think is supposed to be impulsive and annoying but this is never really shown, and Mandy is just a complete nonentity who seems to have no personality at all. In a way this is a shame: if the author had concentrated on the main characters and developed them a bit more, it could have been a good series instead of just a good book.
Although the first book is good and the second Prime Minister one is not bad, I wouldn't bother with the rest of the books in the series -- they get increasingly stagnant and do nothing to advance the characters beyond the end of the first book. Whilst the first book is a great new idea and has tension in the way of rivalry between the protagonist Dinah and the boys she joins the family of, the other ones all are very formulaic in that weird things happen and the children discover that the Headmaster is the cause and defeat him. The headmaster never develops as a character, which was fine for the first book, but I would expect a far deeper character to come out over a six-book series, rather than a cardboard villain.
There were also three other kids who helped Dinah and the two brothers in the first book, with whom they had a gang called splat. The gang being called splat was fair enough in the first book, but became cloying and unnecessary in the later ones, and the inclusion of the other children also seemed very unnecessary in the other volumes, since they never developed away from being one-dimensional characters. Ian is a boy whose only defining characteristic seems to be that he does and says things 'lazily', Ingrid I think is supposed to be impulsive and annoying but this is never really shown, and Mandy is just a complete nonentity who seems to have no personality at all. In a way this is a shame: if the author had concentrated on the main characters and developed them a bit more, it could have been a good series instead of just a good book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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I thought that this was a brilliant book from a brilliant author. Although Gillian Cross is brilliant, I think that she is under rated. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2007 by Darkmaster
The Demon Headmaster
Harvey and Lloyd are two brothers whose parents foster a girl called Dinah. When they find out about this they flip! Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2007 by Pink
the demon headmaster
Even though I'm probably not in the intended age range for this book now, I was when I first read it. And it makes a very entertaining read even now!! Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2004 by Emma
Nearly 5
When Dinah goes to her new school something is terribly wrong. No playing is allowed and the children are neat, tidy and well behaved. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2001
A book that is exciting and is hard to put down
Dianah's new school is very quiet,A little too quiet perhaps.That's because the children are under the control of the Headmaster.The Deamon Headmaster. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2000
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