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The Demon HeadmasterGillian Cross
The Demon Headmaster
by Gillian Cross
Dinah's new school is unnaturally quiet and every pupil recites facts on command. The headmaster's eyes are the reason, and he is not finished with the school.
A story about children and a grown-up villain, spooky and adventurous in tone. We would put it with children of 8–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Frightening scenes
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Part of a series
This is book 1 of the The Demon Headmaster series, so there is more to read if it goes down well — which is worth a great deal with a reluctant reader.
Our take on this book
Dinah is fostered into a new family and sent to a school where the children are eerily well behaved, recite facts in unison and remember nothing about their lessons — because the headmaster's pale, powerful eyes can hypnotise anyone who meets them, and he has plans that reach well beyond the school gates. Gillian Cross wrote a genuinely unsettling villain: the horror is not blood but control, a whole hall of children moving as one, which lands harder than any monster. Dinah has to resist being put under while working out what the headmaster wants, and the tension comes from her pretending to be blank while thinking furiously. There are frightening scenes, but they are psychological rather than violent. For an eight- to eleven-year-old who likes a proper chill and a clever heroine outwitting an adult, it is a taut, memorable read that has scared and thrilled children since the 1980s.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
CogheartPeter Bunzl
Kid NormalGreg James and Chris Smith
Kid Normal and the Rogue HeroesGreg James and Chris Smith
MoonlocketPeter Bunzl
Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsJ. K. Rowling
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.