Customer Reviews

Battle for Castle Cockatrice

5 star:		(5)
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It's so whimsical and so refreshing that you've got to love this book! Filled with clever plot twists and turns, The Battle for Castle Cockatrice is simply charming! In this story, Penelope, and her cousins Peter and Simon find a talking parcel on the beach. It turns out that inside the parcel is a parrot and a singing spider. Soon the children are whisked away to the magical land of Mytholegia and discover that the evil Cockatrices have taken over. It's up to Penelope, Peter, Simon, Parrot, Ethelred the toad, and ruler of Mythologia, "H.H." to go on a risky mission to save the beautiful land where the sky is jade green and where it's always dawn. I'm 14 years old and I actually enjoyed this book!

I am a 10 year old girl from Minnesota, and I recommend this book to all readers! What would you do if you found a box washed up on the beach with a talking parrot and spider inside? Well, these kids travel to a magic realm to try to help the creatures from it to take back a castle stolen by some evil cockatrices, and make some friends along the way! This is a great book to all fantasy and adventure lovers. I love it so much that one night I stayed up untill 11:00 pm reading,it was so good! Try it out!

My sister and I probably checked this book out of the public library 50 times when we were kids. Back then, the book was titled "The Talking Parcel". I am not sure why the switch to "Battle for Castle Cockatrice", maybe that makes it sound more exciting, but this is the same book. The story is full of magical creatures and adventures, clever wordplay and humor. A great read-aloud book, too.

Like the other reviewer, I was crazy about this book when I was a kid (so much so that I convinced my 6th grade English class to adapt it into a full-scale theatrical production). It's a fantastic story, and I'm so excited for my nephews and nieces to have the chance to enjoy it as much as their mothers and I did!

Gerald Durrell is one of my favorite authors. As a teenager I loved his stories about growing up in Greece and collecting animals for his zoo. I read "The Battle for Castle Cockatrice" when I was a kid (back when it was called "The Talking Parcel") and loved it. Great characters, original plot, quality writing... I highly recommend reading it to your kids -- you'll enjoy it too!