Gillian Cross’s The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster is a gripping mystery for 8 year olds about a TV pig that the whole country suddenly can’t stop buying.<\/p>\n
Ingrid comes home from Wales in a T-shirt with a huge, slobbering pig’s face on it. It’s Hunky Parker, star of a TV show, and she thinks he’s brilliant. Her friends in SPLAT think he’s disgusting.<\/p>\n
Then they all sit down to watch one of his videos. By the end, they love him too. Nobody can explain why.<\/p>\n
Only Dinah misses it. Her nose is stuck in a maths book, and she has no intention of watching the show either. So she’s the one who notices things getting strange. Within a week Hunky Parker is on socks, snacks and doughnuts. The shoe shop sells Hunky Trotters, with split toes and brown smears on the front (yuck!).<\/p>\n
Then one morning a crowd in the playground turns on a boy called Benedict, just because he hasn’t got any Hunky things. And Lloyd and Harvey are chanting along with everyone else.<\/p>\n
That scene is the one to be ready for. It’s genuinely tense, and it’s upsetting to see two nice boys join in. It’s also a brilliant way in to talking about crowds, and why people sometimes go along with things they know are wrong.<\/p>\n
Poor Dinah’s birthday is the saddest bit. Nearly every present has that pig on it. But it’s also where she finds a clue, hidden inside a Hunky Parker video, that explains everything.<\/p>\n
From there it’s a proper mystery. Who sends each new episode to the TV studio by motorbike, only an hour before it goes out? And who could possibly want a whole country doing exactly as it’s told? (The title might give you a hint!)<\/p>\n
This isn’t the first book about SPLAT, the Society for the Protection of our Lives Against Them. They already have a secret password and a shed to meet in. Lloyd’s made-up exclamations are the best bit (“Purple pickled onions!”).<\/p>\n
It’s a world of video cassettes rather than streaming, but that won’t bother anyone once the pig takes over. Clever children will love being one step ahead of the adults.<\/p>\n
If they haven’t met SPLAT before, go back to the book where Dinah first comes to live with Lloyd and Harvey, The Demon Headmaster itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gillian Cross’s The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster is a gripping mystery for 8 year olds about a TV pig that the whole country suddenly can’t stop buying. Ingrid comes home from Wales in a T-shirt with a huge, slobbering pig’s face on it. It’s Hunky Parker, star of a TV show, and she thinks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12696,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8976,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Demon Headmaster itself","lr_seo_hook":"A slobbering TV pig, a nationwide craze and one girl who won't watch it."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[353],"class_list":["post-9353","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-gillian-cross"],"yoast_title":"The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A slobbering TV pig, a nationwide craze and one girl who won't watch it. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n