• home
  • Biography
  • books
  • Guides
  • media room
  • contact

Iain Lawrence

Author of The Wreckers

JOIN THE MAILING LIST
Follow Us on Facebook

The Giant-Slayer

  • Praise

Overview

A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world. The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants. As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. Little by little Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen, recognize counterparts as well. Laurie’s tale is so powerful that when she’s prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Collosso and Jimmy to an end—changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways.

Random House Delacorte
Hardcover: 304 pages pages
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0385733762

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Amazon Canada
Chapters/Indigo Canada

Copyright © 2021 Iain Lawrence