Ffangs the Vampire Bat and the Kiss of Truth

By Ted Hughes

Book Overview

A blood-fearing vampire who wants to be human encounters Thomas Squarq the Vampire Hunter at Buckingham Palace. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571278817
• ISBN13: 9780571278817
• Release Date: October 2011
• Publisher: Faber And Faber Ltd.
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.4" x 5.0"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Great story, strangely attired

I'm not sure if this is appropriate for children - the story and drawings are a bit hallucinatory, though the underlying message is wonderful, along the lines of Pinnochio. It certainly caught my attention when I first read it at age 20. Ffangs is a vampire who wants to be human, but when people see him they flee in fright. Through the various (and many) twists and turns in the story he finds a girl named Selena living in the bottom of a dark pit, who has a snake in her mouth. The snake is the Truth, whose bite makes people what they really are. Ffangs eventually gets his wish, and the story ends in a wonderful way, with Selena vanishing and Ffangs setting off to find her. The last line of the book is (The adventures of Ffangs will be continued in the next book.) which is a great way to end a story, though to my knowledge the sequel was either never written or never published. That's okay though, maybe there was never even any sequel planned. My only quibble with the book is that the drawings don't match the tone of the story, at least to my eye. They are filled with explosive, manic energy, while the story itself works on a much deeper level. Also, the story begins with the story of a rooster named Attila, which while somewhat of the same theme, serves mostly as a strange introduction. One can see Attila as the poet himself, if one is inclined to read things into the story.