The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster

The Demon Headmaster #3

by Gillian Cross

There's a new craze - Hunky Parker. Everyone's watching the TV programmes and queuing up to buy Hunky T-shirts, trainers like pigs' trotters and pig-swill yoghurt. Is it just normal hype or is something sinister going on? When there are riots Dinah and her friends start to investigate. But someone has a plan, and they're not going to let it be scuppered by a bunch of kids. BLGillian Cross has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Novel Award, and the Smarties Prize, and is a highly-acclaimed author. Sales of her books exceed one million copies.

Genres: Childrens, Horror, Fantasy, Middle Grade

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Gillian Cross was born Gillian Arnold in 1945. She was educated at North London Collegiate School, Somerville College, Oxford and the University of Sussex. Although now a full-time writer who often travels and gives talks in connection with her work, she has had a number of informal jobs including being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. For eight years she also sat on the committee which advises ministers about public libraries.

She is married to Martin Cross and they have four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters.

Reviews

[Anthony Buck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Third book in the series (I think, or at least the third we've read) and I'm done with it now. There's not a lot here that wasn't in the first two and I think even my kids, who really love a series, might think twice about bothering with number four.

[Leo Margetts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This amazing book by Gillian Cross is amazing.During the story Dinah and her friends are captured by the demon headmaster - now Hunky Parker. After they are captured Dinah manages to escape, destroy the head master's plan's and free her friends from being blown up. When they are captured they are sent to the Sty - a place designed to be a Hunky Parker world. At the end of the story the demon headmaster had escaped but his master minded plan was foiled. I learnt to never tresspass on private property and be caught.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

My TA read this to our class in year 3 but she didn't get past like chapter 6 and I remembered some 10 years later that this book existed and I had to know how it ended. I have not read the first two in this series but I'm glad I read this - it was a good time. I mean I'm obviously not the target audience but it was fun.

[silene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting book!!!

[Rita · Rating 2 out of 5]

1994
Seems fine for pre-teens. Quite exciting adventures.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I´d completely forgotten this one!

[Coco Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was kinda funny bc wth. i still don't like ingrid tho.

[Kirsty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very weak compared to the first two.

[Ralph E Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5★

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adored The Demon Headmaster book and must have read it a dozen times as a child. I also had a copy of the sequel, The Prime-Minister’s Brain which I read multiple times. Somehow the other books passed me by, so when I saw a copy of the third book at the school, I thought I’d give it a go. I read it on a forty minute train ride and it was an extremely exciting forty minutes.

I loved the central plot revolving around the hideous character of Hunky, the pig that causes extreme and violent dedication. While the book was about the insidious way this hideous mascot takes over the main character’s lives, it was utterly thrilling (even for an adult reading a children’s book). However, once we get to the evil lair, with the huge snowstorm and armies of zombified holiday-goers, things became too kiddy and cartoony to be as gripping, though it was good old-fashioned fun.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Demon Headmaster as a child, but it wasn't until I was in my teens that I read the later ones, which seemed to have been produced primarily to sell the TV show (or vice-versa). This installment is pretty relevant today, with its obsession with a TV show being the focus of the plot, but I still think The Prime Minister's Brain was the best one!

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 3rd one in the series. I enjoyed it. It was about a craze that went through all of America! Untrue (of course)!

[Rebecca Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but in my opinion, I feel like the plot dont get on until 20 papers until end in my opinion, but good

[Harry Riches · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like this book was boring some parts were good but mostly bad.