Brief summary
Set in an old tavern in Glockenheim, apprentice Karl finds himself without a clockwork figure for the grand unveiling tomorrow. After confiding in his friend Fritz, the local Storyteller, Fritz begins to tell a sinister tale, setting in motion an unstoppable story of love, death and mystery that entwines everyone involved.
My comments
Clockwork is a wonderfully spine-chilling tale that strikes the perfect balance of horror for a children’s book. Philip Pullman weaves countless twists and turns into such a short book, which kept my children on the edge of their seats throughout and compelled gasps of shock at numerous points. Needless to say, this book is brilliant for teaching tension and suspense in writing. It is without a doubt one of my favourite books to use in class, and I look forward to reading it to them each year.
Many books aimed at older children can be quite long and a bit overwhelming for reluctant or less confident children. Clockwork is great as the vocabulary isn’t too challenging, it’s fast-paced and short in length, but remains gripping and replete with older themes. On the surface, Clockwork is a beautifully told fairy tale, but dig deeper and you’ll find a rich commentary on the importance of hard work and perseverance.
For obvious reasons, a book of only 92 pages has a much narrower focus for the setting than the expansiveness of His Dark Materials, but it contains many of Philip Pullman’s artistic flourishes nonetheless. The setting of wintery Glockenheim feels like a Christmas market, warm and inviting, but with a cold breeze blowing through, nipping at your ankles.
You can feel the ghostly fingers creeping up your spine, and even when you know what’s going to happen next you can’t help jumping when it does.
Philip Pullman
Clockwork is also a fantastic book for studying character traits, which, in the style of folk/fairy tales, remain generally static. Again, the book being so short helps immensely with this as you don’t need to filter through pages of story to get back to the core characters, which often stand in stark contrast to each other. An example of this, is the kind-hearted and good-natured Gretl, the polar opposite of selfish pessimist Karl. Despite the restrictive word-count, I found myself rooting for the characters by the end, a testament to Philip Pullman’s ability to fit a lot into a small space.
Class comments
My children were completely enthralled by the story, and would often ask me to read through break time. It was so lovely to see their reactions of shock to certain elements, and their enthusiasm when discussing the book outside of the classroom. A few of my children re-read the book in their own time, and asked for my reccommendations of similar books.
Themes
- Hard work and perseverance, especially with regards to creativity.
- Friendship and love.
- The nature of good and evil.
Curricular links
- Fairy tales and folk tales.
- Teaching tension and suspense in writing.
- The comparison between growth mindset and fixed mindset.
Points to consider in class
- Death, including self-sacrifice and small-talk of suicide, features fairly prominently throughout the book, as you would expect from a classically-toned fairy tale.
- The horror elements mainly consist of tension and suspense, which shouldn’t cause a problem in class, but it’s worth considering if you have very sensitive or younger children.
- The adult characters drink beer, as the beginning is set in a tavern.
